


The Darker Door

by AutumnMooncakes



Series: Son and Brother [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: The Dark World - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:33:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 29,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26122768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutumnMooncakes/pseuds/AutumnMooncakes
Summary: Aisha enters the fictional universe of Thor: The Dark World, and is drawn to Loki and his personal struggles. But her determination to care for this fallen prince causes more trouble than she anticipated.
Series: Son and Brother [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1896754
Kudos: 1





	1. Asgard

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Thor: The Dark World spoilers! Some violence and gore. Also, fourth wall breaking.

This time, Aisha was doing something different.  
Aisha opened a magical portal and stepped out of her universe into the tunnel beyond. Everything became a mass of rushing light. At the end of the tunnel was another universe, one she had visited before.  
But she wasn’t going to go there.  
The tunnel was carrying Aisha past more universes. She could visit them by jumping through the wall.  
Jumping was random. She had no idea what universe she would end up in.  
Aisha’s body was pulsing with excitement and fear. She took a deep breath and leapt through the side.  
She started falling, and winds began to pummel her from all directions. She somersaulted, her curly hair billowing around her face. She had enchanted her glasses to not fall off, but they slipped so much, she was afraid they would.  
Howling battered her ears, mixed with garbled sounds she couldn’t identify, as if lots of worlds were rushing past her. She reached out to grab something, but there was nothing to grab.  
A bright white light engulfed her. The winds ceased. Aisha slowed until she was barely moving at all.  
Then she hit a cold stone floor.  
Aisha’s stomach and chest ached. Some of her hair was stuck behind her glasses.  
She took off her glasses, tidied her hair, put her glasses back on and looked up. A brightly-lit room with a glass wall was in front of her.  
Behind the glass, a man was watching her curiously. He had shoulder-length black hair and wore a green tunic.  
Loki.  
Disappointment washed over Aisha. She was in the Thor franchise.  
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said in Italian.  
The ceiling began shaking, and bits of dust fell down onto Aisha.  
“Who are you?” asked Loki in English.  
“My name’s Aisha,” Aisha said. “I’m human.”  
Loki’s expression changed to mild disgust.  
Aisha quickly stood up – she wouldn’t lie on floor in front of _him_ – and winced as her body ached. The ceiling was low over her head.  
She was in a corridor of identical rooms. Some rooms had people in them. However, others were empty, and their glass walls had disappeared.  
The floor around her was littered with dead bodies. Some were soldiers in golden armour. Some didn’t even look human. There were people running away. No one seemed to have noticed Aisha.  
Aisha had no idea why she had recognised Loki so quickly. He hadn’t crossed her mind at all over the past year. Scenes from a half-forgotten movie began to flash through her mind.  
“How did you come here from Earth?” Loki asked.  
He obviously thought she was from the Earth in this universe. “I used magic to open a portal,” Aisha replied.  
“What magic?”  
Aisha couldn’t figure out how to answer him. “My … magic.”  
“A human with magic?” he said.  
“It happens,” Aisha snapped.  
Even though this wasn’t a universe she’d wanted to come to, she decided to make the most of it. “Where am I?” she asked.  
“In a dungeon.”  
That was when Aisha realised that Loki’s room – his cell – had no door. Just two solid walls and two glass ones. The glass had a faint yellow glow, as if it was electric.  
What surprised her was the amount of furniture inside the cell. A bed, tables, a chair, even a footstool. It could’ve been a prince’s bedroom.  
“In a dungeon _where?”_ Aisha asked.  
“Asgard.”  
_The realm of the gods,_ Aisha remembered.  
This movie was probably set after _The Avengers_ , then. She remembered Loki being taken back to Asgard as a prisoner at the end.  
Aisha suddenly got a mental image of Loki standing on a tower, holding a spear and wearing a golden helmet with long horns.  
She shook the silly-looking image from her mind.  
With a jump, Aisha realised that she ought to be in the middle of the action. That was one of the rules of world-travelling. But nothing was happening here. Apparently jumping out of portal tunnels cancelled the rules.  
Loki’s expression was expectant. He probably thought she was completely ignorant about this world and was going to ask about it.  
Aisha heard sounds of running and yelling coming from above. She pointed to the empty cells. “There weren’t _prisoners_ in those cells, were there?”  
“There was a mass breakout,” said Loki. “A monster came here and allowed many to escape.” He looked a little wistful.  
Aisha’s heart began beating faster.  
She must’ve looked excited, because Loki asked, “You seek a battle against dangerous monsters and criminals?”  
He seemed to be trying to scare her away. Aisha stood up straighter. “Yes.”  
There were sounds of fighting coming from above them now.  
“What you’re doing is suicide,” said Loki.  
“I came here to have an adventure,” said Aisha. “The more dangerous it is, the better.”  
“You do not fear death?”  
“The risk of death is worth the excitement.”  
Loki chuckled, which annoyed Aisha. He should be envious, not mocking.  
“Should you die,” said Loki, “you will call yourself a fool for not realising how dangerous they are.”  
“Should I survive,” Aisha responded haughtily, “I’ll come back and tell you just how un-dangerous they were.”  
Loki’s mischievous expression disappeared.  
Aisha walked in the direction she had seen the other people run. Some of the dead soldiers’ necks were red and smoking. She grimaced.  
“You don’t know what’s out there,” Loki called after her. “You don’t even know who I am.”  
Aisha stopped, remembering that he hadn’t introduced himself.  
She turned. “It’s _because_ I don’t know what’s out there that I’m going.” Her eyes narrowed. “And I _do_ know who you are, Loki.”  
She hurried down the corridor, not looking back.

Aisha went through a pair of double doors and up a long flight of stairs.  
She pulled up all her memories about Loki and Thor, which were few. Thor could control lightning with a hammer only he could lift. Loki was adopted, felt he had grown up in Thor’s shadow and could create illusions of himself. It wasn’t much, but it was something.  
After several more turns and another staircase, Aisha finally saw daylight.  
Then she heard a voices shouting, “Seal the dungeon! Let no one in or out!”  
Thinking fast, Aisha looked at the wall and cast an illusion. A floating cloud appeared, showing an exact image of the wall. She slipped behind it.  
A group of guards in golden armour went down the stairs. Aisha walked right past them, unnoticed.  
The building above had a high ceiling and many pillars with intricate designs. Aisha ran to the nearest balcony and looked out at Asgard. _“Mamma mia.”_  
The entire landscape reflected the sunshine, from the golden buildings to the twisting river to a wide road with rainbow highlights. Aisha had expected Asgard to be ancient, but the gleaming walls and high arches seemed futuristic.  
After drinking it in for a few seconds, Aisha rushed towards the sounds of fighting.  
In a large hall, many Asgardian soldiers were busy battling black-clothed creatures. They were in golden armour and using swords, spears and shields that glowed blue whenever they came into contact with something.  
The creatures wore white masks and had pointy ears. They were shooting the soldiers with laser guns. Many soldiers and creatures already lay dead on the floor.  
Some of the creatures threw devices at the warriors that opened vortexes. The Asgardians collapsed in on themselves, their limbs and body parts folding inwards, and were sucked into nothing.  
A black spaceship was in the middle of the room, tilted to one side. Many pillars behind it had been smashed.  
It was a terrible scene, but its energy was making Aisha’s heart race. _Now this is what I came here for!_  
Aisha approached a lone creature and used telekinesis to make his gun fly out of his hand.  
The creature turned to pick it up, and Aisha blasted his face with orange magic, knocking him out.  
Aisha made a bunch of basketballs appear and threw them at three creatures nearest to her. She only just remembered to erect a shield as they started shooting. Their red lasers bounced off her shield easily.  
I’m out of practice, she thought.  
Then Aisha noticed a toppled brazier nearby. She cast an illusion of the brazier near the creatures. Then she muttered a spell and shot pink sparks from her free hand.  
The sparks rippled around the illusion, and the illusion vanished, replaced by a real brazier. The creatures tripped over it, and Aisha used telekinesis to disarm them.  
One creature threw a vortex device in Aisha’s direction.  
Thinking quickly, Aisha threw sports equipment in front of her. The vortex sucked them in and vanished.  
Aisha hadn’t felt this great in months. Her adrenaline was rushing. _This_ was what adventure was all about.  
As the creatures regained their composure, a soldier ran over, swung his sword and killed them from behind.  
“Thanks,” said Aisha. She pointed to the creatures. “What are those?”  
“Dark Elves,” said soldier grimly.  
Aisha noticed an Elf coming up behind the soldier. She made a rock smash into his stomach, knocking him over.  
“Thanks back,” said the soldier.  
Aisha looked back at all the fallen Elves and realised something was wrong.  
They hadn’t been trying to go anywhere. They didn’t seem to have an objective.  
They were a distraction.  
Surely the Elves had a leader. So where was he?  
Aisha had started to leave when a powerful blast of magic shot past Aisha and sliced through the only Elf remaining.  
Aisha turned to see an old but regal-looking man with a patch over one eye, wielding a spear. He was probably the king.  
_About time you came out,_ Aisha thought.  
The king seemed to have realised the same thing as Aisha. He began walk down a side corridor.  
Aisha ran down the same corridor, overtaking him. She heard a male voice shout, _“Witch!”_  
A few seconds later, Aisha came to a doorway.  
Just in time to see a horned creature stab a woman in the back.


	2. Loki's Past

The woman groaned, and the creature let her crumple to the floor.   
The creature behind her was huge and seemed to be made of rock. Standing in front of the woman, his face full of hatred, was a Dark Elf who was almost certainly the leader. A couple of swords lay on the floor near them.   
A lightning bolt suddenly struck the right side of Dark Elf’s face.  
A man ran past Aisha, holding a hammer, his face full of grief and fury. It was Thor, with shoulder-length blonde hair and a red cape.   
It dawned on Aisha that the woman must be his mother.  
The horned creature put his arm around the Elf and leapt off the balcony. Thor threw his hammer, but it missed them.   
Then a ship flew away from under the balcony, presumably with the creature and the Elf on board. It returned to a large ship floating at the edge of the city. Then the large ship vanished.   
Aisha stood paralysed. Why hadn’t she tried to find the leader sooner? Had she been so caught up in the thrill of fighting that she had ignored everyone else’s safety?  
The king – Thor’s father – came into the room. After a shocked glance at Thor, he knelt beside the woman.   
Aisha waited for one of them to yell at her for not doing anything, but it didn’t come.  
Not wanting to stay, Aisha made her way back to the throne room. But the damage there didn’t help her misery.   
The day before, she’d been at home, watching TV. Now she was standing in a room full of rubble and dead bodies. The life she had led the previous day seemed to belong to a different person.  
 _You had your fun,_ Aisha told herself. Now it’s time to get serious.  
Some soldiers started collecting weapons, or carrying away the bodies. Aisha helped them.   
Her guilt deepened. She hadn’t tried to save any of the soldiers, either.  
When they were done, the soldiers left, but Aisha sat on the steps near where the throne had been and waited.   
After an immeasurable amount of time, Thor and his father came down, heads bowed.   
Three warriors came into the room. They were dressed differently from the Asgardian soldiers. There was one woman, a stocky warrior with a large beard and a blond warrior. They comforted Thor and Odin.   
When they had finally finished hugging and exchanging soft words, everyone seemed to notice Aisha for the first time.  
“Who are you?” asked Odin, standing up straighter.  
Aisha got to her feet. “Aisha Balducci, from Earth.” The fact that she was standing among royalty made her aware of her sloppy appearance. She smoothed out her T-shirt.  
“I am Odin Allfather, King of Asgard,” said Odin. “How did you come here?”   
Aisha launched into another explanation, feeling the pressure of more eyes.   
It was followed by absolute silence.   
“What brings you to Asgard?” Odin asked finally.  
Aisha tried to appear casual. “Boredom. I needed something to do.”  
“We’re fighting a war,” said Odin.  
“Yeah, so I’ll have something to do.”  
“Dark Elves are powerful and deadly,” Thor said. “You should leave.”  
“‘You should leave’?” Aisha echoed, putting her hands on her hips. “I _teleported_ right into your home, while the Elves had to fly in. I fought the Elves, whom I have never seen before, and survived. And believe me, I’m capable of a lot more than that.”  
“But you could be killed,” Thor pointed out.  
Aisha realised she was doing this wrongly. She scanned her listeners’ faces. They were either grieving or in shock.   
“You might be killed too. But you’re trying to save something important.” Aisha gestured around the room. “I saw … a lot of death today. A lot of destruction. I want to help stop more of that.”  
Something flickered over their faces.   
“This is not your fight,” Odin said.  
“I’m willing to make it my fight,” said Aisha resolutely. “I’ll help save anyone who needs saving.”  
“We would not stop someone from helping us, surely,” the woman said to Odin.  
Aisha found it lame that the woman was the only one standing up for her.   
“How do we know we can trust you?” asked Thor.  
She had to assure them of their superiority. “If I betray you, you can kill me.”  
Thor and his friends were beginning to look less hostile.   
Odin was still frowning. “I hope you can be a help and not a hindrance.” He stalked off.   
“I’m really sorry about your mother,” Aisha told Thor. “I wish I could have helped her.”  
Everyone was silent for a moment.  
“I am Thor, son of Odin,” said Thor.  
“I’m Lady Sif,” said the woman.  
“I’m Volstagg,” said the stocky warrior.  
“Fandral,” added the blonde man.  
“Nice to meet you,” Aisha said with fake cheerfulness.  
“Why do you have magic?” Volstagg asked.  
Aisha decided that it wasn’t worth annoying them with evasive answers. “Because I’m part fairy.”  
“Part _what?”_ said Fandral.  
“Fairy. A female creature with magic.”  
“I’ve never heard of a fairy before,” said Volstagg.  
Aisha was too tired to explain. “What are the Dark Elves trying to do?”  
Everybody’s faces fell.  
“Their leader, Malekith, is after the Aether,” said Thor, “a very powerful force. He wants to use to it to plunge the nine realms into darkness.”  
Aisha’s mouth fell open, and she quickly shut it. _Nine_ worlds in one universe?  
“The Aether was accidentally absorbed by Jane, a human,” Sif continued. “Thor brought her here for medical attention. Malekith sent his lieutenant, a Kursed, here, in disguise. The Kursed allowed himself to be locked in our dungeon. Then he initiated a mass breakout and divided our forces. You saw the rest.”   
Aisha’s head was spinning. The lieutenant must have been the horned creature that killed the queen. “What are the nine realms?”  
“Asgard, Midgard, Vanaheim, Nidavellir, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, Jotunheim, Nilfheim and Muspelheim,” Volstagg rattled off.  
Aisha cringed at the long words. She decided she needed to end the conversation. “Could I have some water, please?”

Dinner was splendid, with a hundred varieties of food, but no one seemed to enjoy it. Aisha wanted to gobble up everything in sight, but since everyone was taking small portions, she did, too.  
Jane, whom Aisha guessed was Thor’s girlfriend, came to sit beside Aisha. She was probably glad to have another human to talk to. She had long brown hair and was wearing a plain dress.  
“You’re very brave,” Jane commented.  
“Thanks,” said Aisha. She swallowed a vegetable. “How did you find the Aether?”  
“There was a magical phenomenon on Earth,” said Jane. “Gravity was ... acting strangely. I went through a portal and found the Aether, and it ... entered me.” She glanced down at her arm, looking worried. “Then I appeared back on Earth, and Thor found me.”  
Aisha wanted to ask what having the Aether inside her felt like, but thought the better of it.  
“This wasn’t your fault,” said Aisha. “It was Malekith’s.”  
“I know,” said Jane, her voice growing angry. “We’ll make him pay for what he did. And what he plans to do.”  
 _Jane has the guts to fight,_ Aisha thought approvingly, _just not the skills, but those can be taught._  
“It’s not your fault the queen died, either,” said Aisha.   
Jane smiled sadly. “Frigga was a smart woman,” she said. “She protected me because of Thor.”  
“She protected you because of you,” Aisha replied, almost certain it was true.   
“The portal on Earth opened because of the Convergence,” said Jane, finishing the food on her plate. “The Nine Realms are aligning. The borders between the worlds are becoming blurred.”   
So there was something bigger going on.   
Aisha was about to ask how Jane had met Thor when Jane said, “Please excuse me.” She left.   
As Aisha chewed her food, she surveyed the Asgardians’ sombre faces. Her resolve grew stronger.   
No matter what happened, she wasn’t going to let someone else die. As a world-traveller, she could change the events in a universe. And she felt obligated to.   
But in order to help the Asgardians, she needed know their histories, their personalities, their regrets. She wanted to ask every person in the room a million questions, but that would be too intrusive.  
So there was only one way she could get all the answers. 

While Frigga’s funeral preparations were ongoing, Aisha hid herself in a corner, made her laptop and earphones appear, and started to watch the movie Thor. Her father had bought it for her, but she’d never been interested until now.   
_Thor_ opened in the year 965, when Frost Giants from Jotunheim had tried to freeze Earth with the Casket of Ancient Winters. Odin and a huge army defeated the Giants and took the Casket.  
In the present, an arrogant Thor was about to be crowned king, but his coronation was interrupted by three Frost Giants breaking in to steal the Casket back. A robot in the Casket’s vault destroyed them. Furious, Thor planned to go to Jotunheim and teach the Giants a lesson.   
“Thor, it’s madness!” Loki told him.  
Thor invited his warrior friends to come along. Aisha realised that Volstagg and Fandral had a friend, Hogun. The three of them were known as the Warriors Three.   
The Warriors Three, Sif, Thor and Loki went down the Bifrost Bridge, the colourful pathway Aisha had seen leading from the palace. It was Asgard’s only route to other realms.   
Heimdall allowed them across. He was mystified by the Frost Giants’ invasion. “Never has an enemy escaped my watch until this day,” he said.   
In Jotunheim, Thor argued with Laufey, the king of the Frost Giants, and then started a fight. The Frost Giants could control ice. They were fierce fighters and burned Volstagg’s skin with a single touch.   
However, when a Frost Giant accidentally touched Loki, Loki’s skin just turned blue momentarily.   
Aisha watched that segment with interest. It was a clue.   
Just as the Asgardians were about to be defeated, Odin appeared and pleaded with Laufey to let them go.   
As punishment, Odin removed Thor’s powers and banished Thor to Earth. Then Odin threw Thor’s hammer Mjölnir after him, saying that anyone worthy could wield it and gain Thor’s powers.   
Thor was sent down to a New Mexico desert in a large tornado. Jane and her friends Darcy and Selvig were doing astrophysics research there and found him. They took Thor to hospital. Mjölnir then landed in around the same area.  
Meanwhile, Hogun told his friends that there might be a traitor in the palace. “A master of magic could bring three Jotuns into Asgard,” he said.  
Loki, wondering how he had survived the Frost Giant’s touch, went to the vault and picked up the Casket with his bare hands. Not only was he unharmed, his whole form turned blue.   
Aisha felt as if the ice of the Casket was creeping over her as well.  
Loki was a Frost Giant.   
Odin came in, and Loki demanded an explanation.  
“In the aftermath of the battle,” said Odin, “I went into the temple and I found a baby. Small for a Giant’s offspring, abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey’s son.”  
Loki asked why Odin had adopted him. Reluctantly, Odin replied that he had hoped to unite Asgard and Jotunheim through Loki, which shocked Loki.   
“I wanted only to protect you from the truth …” said Odin.   
Loki looked like he was about to cry. “What, because I-I-I am the monster parents tell their children about at night?”  
“No! No!” Odin started swaying.  
Aisha almost wanted to run into the screen and stop the argument. But it was unchangeable.   
Loki turned angry. “You know, it all makes sense now, why you favoured Thor all these years.” He towered over his father, who had collapsed. “Because no matter how much you claim to love me, you could _never_ have a Frost Giant sitting on the throne of Asgard!”  
Odin sank into a coma.   
Aisha was shaken. This was why Loki felt so betrayed and unwanted. Pity was building up in her chest.   
Frigga made Loki King of Asgard temporarily. On Earth, Jane drove Thor to where Mjölnir had landed, but some agents from an organisation called S.H.I.E.L.D. were guarding it. Thor fought his way to Mjölnir, but he couldn’t lift it, and was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D.  
While Thor was imprisoned, Loki appeared to him.   
“Father is dead,” Loki told his brother sadly.  
“What?” said Thor.   
Loki explained that Thor’s banishment and the threat of a war had killed Odin. Frigga had therefore barred Thor from returning to Asgard.  
His lies made Aisha’s stomach curl up in disgust.  
Selvig persuaded S.H.I.E.L.D. to release Thor. In the meanwhile, Loki went to Laufey, where he revealed he was the one who had snuck the giants into Asgard.  
Loki struck a deal with Laufey. “I will conceal you and a handful of your soldiers,” he said with a smile, “lead you into Odin’s chambers, and you can slay him where he lies.”  
Aisha was horrified.   
Against Loki’s orders, Sif and the Warriors Three went to Earth and told Thor the truth about Odin. Loki sent the robot in the vault to kill Thor. Thor’s friends tried to fight it, but to no avail.  
Thor went to the robot alone and spoke to Loki through it. “Brother, whatever I have done to wrong you, whatever I have done to lead you to do this, I am truly sorry. But these people are innocent. Taking their lives will gain you nothing. So take mine and end this.”  
The robot punched Thor, hard. But as Thor lay dying, Mjölnir flew to him, and his power returned. Thor created a whirlwind and destroyed the robot. After promising Jane he would return, he went back to Asgard.  
Loki brought Laufey into Asgard. Just as Laufey prepared to stab Odin, however, Loki killed him with Odin’s spear.   
Now Aisha was very confused.   
Frigga thanked Loki for saving Odin, and Loki promised her he would get rid of the Frost Giants. He then went to the Bifrost and unleashed its full power on Jotunheim to destroy it.  
But Thor came and confronted Loki. “Why have you done this?” he asked.  
“To prove to Father that I am a worthy son!” Loki answered. “When he wakes, I will have saved his life, I will have destroyed that race of monsters, and I will be true heir to the throne!”  
Aisha could barely breathe. She was almost rooting for him.  
There was a terrible battle, and Loki was beaten by Thor. Thor tried to turn off the Bifrost, but it had gone out of control. Thor then started smashing the Bridge with Mjölnir.  
 _“If you destroy the Bridge, you’ll never see her again!”_ cried Loki.  
“Forgive me, Jane!” said Thor.  
The Bridge shattered, and Loki and Thor fell over the edge. But Odin had woken up and appeared just in time to allow them to grab his spear.  
“I could have done it, Father!” Loki told Odin pleadingly. “I could have done it! For you! For all of us!”  
Odin shook his head. “No, Loki.”  
With an expression of absolute misery, Loki let go of the spear. He fell into space, Thor screaming after him.  
The movie went on, but Aisha was overwhelmed with sadness. This was the first time a villain’s entire backstory had been revealed to her.   
Loki’s envy of Thor was something anyone could have had. But instead of taking it well, he’d allowed his hate to grow.   
But somehow, these revelations made her like him more, not less.  
A new feeling formed in Aisha’s chest. A feeling of purpose and determination.


	3. Plans

When Aisha came out of the corner, it was completely dark. Asgard flickered in the light of torches and braziers, as if it wasn’t completely solid.  
She went to where the Asgardians had assembled at the edge of the sea, holding spheres of light. Thor, Jane and Odin were standing near the front of the crowd. Frigga was floating out on a boat, looking beautiful in her orange gown. Her hands were folded over a sword.  
Aisha looked up at the sky and drew in her breath.   
The sky was not simply stars. She could see the blue clouds of galaxies, faint outlines of distant planets. She was in the middle of space.   
Many other, smaller boats were floating on the water. When they were some distance away, an archer shot a fiery arrow at Frigga’s boat, and it erupted into flames. Several more archers did the same for the other boats.  
Frigga’s boat drifted to the top of the waterfall, and Aisha waited for it to plummet over the edge.  
Just then, Odin thumped his spear, and the boat floated off the waterfall and hung in mid-air. Then Frigga’s body dissolved into silver stars, which rose into the hazy nebula up above.   
The Asgardians let go of their glowing spheres, which flew up to join Frigga.  
Aisha stared in wonder and sadness. Frigga’s life had already faded, but this ritual made her seem truly gone.  
The crowd dispersed a little, and Aisha walked up to Sif, Fandral and Volstagg, who greeted her with forced cheerfulness.   
“She was a capable warrior,” Volstagg said.   
Aisha nodded. “I’m sure she was.”  
“She was a sorceress too, you know,” Fandral said. “Skilled in magic and illusions.”  
Aisha raised her eyebrows. “A sorceress?”  
“Few could match her power,” Sif added. “I think you would have liked her.”  
“Maybe.” Aisha’s mind was churning, drawing connections between all the things she knew.   
She thought she ought to go see Loki again.   
Two seconds later, she decided against it. If Loki had heard about Frigga’s death, he may not have taken it well. And what if he found out she had failed to defend her?  
“What exactly _is the Aether?”_ Aisha asked as Thor came to join them.   
“It’s a highly destructive force,” said Thor. “It makes matter …” His voice faltered, and he moved towards Jane.  
“Dark,” Volstagg finished. “It uses people’s life energy to grow stronger.”  
“Then won’t it hurt Malekith?” Aisha said.  
“Malekith created the Aether,” said Sif. “He knows how to use it. He can even sense it.”  
“Then why couldn’t he find it all those years?”  
Her listeners exchanged looks.   
“Are you going to stay the night?” asked Sif, changing the subject.  
“If you’ll let me.”   
“We can spare you a room,” said Thor, and began to lead her and Jane away. 

Loki was looking at his book, but he couldn’t concentrate on it. The last few hours had been too strange, and too entertaining.   
A disguised creature no one had seen in centuries had managed to sneak into the prison and change itself into a Kursed. It had then started a breakout, and a battle had been fought right outside his cell. There was no doubt that it had continued.   
Oh, and that irritating human girl had fallen from the sky.   
Loki wondered if she’d really survived. It would be a great blow to her pride if she hadn’t.   
But then, she was no ordinary human. And how had she known his name?  
The bodies had been cleared. Everything was quiet now, but with luck, things would soon become exciting again.  
He was just trying to focus on the words of his book when he heard a thump on the glass.   
He looked up and saw a soldier directly outside his cell.  
The soldier said quietly, “Queen Frigga is dead.”  
Loki felt his world crumbling around him.

The guest room Thor brought Aisha and Jane to was small, but had lots of ornate furniture.   
“How long were you searching for Thor?” Aisha asked Jane.   
“Two years,” Jane answered.   
Aisha was impressed. “I’d have given up after two months.”  
Jane smiled a little.   
A servant brought a set of clean clothes for Jane, and Jane went into another room to bathe.  
Aisha sneaked back downstairs to see the dungeon.  
Many, many guards standing in front of the dungeon door. There was no way she could go see Loki.  
She returned to the guest room, flopped down on a bed and created an illusion of a scene from _The Avengers._  
A wall of cloud appeared in front of her, showing scenes like a TV screen, except with no sound. She watched Thor hit Captain America’s shield with his hammer and make a huge shockwave.  
Aisha waved her hand, and the illusion changed to aliens and flying robots blasting buildings. Aisha wondered what city it was.   
She played scene after scene, all out of order. Although her memories were fuzzy, the illusions restored them to full clarity.   
Then she got to a scene where the Hulk grabbed Loki and smashed him into the floor repeatedly. Loki looked completely pathetic.  
The first time Aisha had seen that, she had laughed, but now she just winced. “Ow.”  
She heard a movement and jumped. Jane had come up behind her and was staring at the illusion.   
“I can create illusions of stuff I’ve seen before,” Aisha explained.  
“You were there?” said Jane in surprise.   
“No, I …” Aisha licked her lips. “People in my universe have … ways of knowing what happens in other universes.”  
Jane watched the illusion. “Aren’t you … American?”   
Aisha felt offended. “I’m from _Italy!”_  
“Oh,” said Jane. “Then why are there Chinese words on there?”  
Chinese subtitles were appearing and disappearing at the bottom of the illusion, since Aisha had watched the movie in China.  
Aisha was saved from answering because Sif came in.   
“Call me when you’re ready to sleep,” said Sif. “I’ll tell the servants to put out the fires.”  
“I’m going to bathe,” said Aisha abruptly. She made her illusion disappear and went into another room.   
When she returned from bathing, Jane was already asleep.  
Aisha called Sif inside. A group of servants came in with her, and started extinguishing the fires in the braziers.   
“There don’t seem to be many female warriors here,” Aisha commented.  
“It’s something we must endure,” said Sif.   
“I started learning self-defence five years ago,” said Aisha. “I’m not _great_ at it, but …”  
“You have the heart of a warrior,” said Sif, smiling. “Asgard needs more women like you.”  
The servants plunged the room into darkness.   
“Was Frigga a good warrior?” Aisha wanted to know.   
“One of the finest. Get some rest.” Sif and servants went out the door.   
Aisha put her glasses on a table nearby and pulled a blanket over her. It was extremely soft.  
As she slipped into sleep, she suddenly saw an image of a man with a badly scarred face staring at her, his eyes large and frightened.


	4. A Proposition

Aisha woke up in the morning feeling giddy. The things she’d discovered in the movie were still weighing down her mind.   
Breakfast was ready for her. Anticipating a long day ahead, she ate quite a lot. She had expected the Asgardians to be preparing for war, but only Thor seemed ready for action.  
Aisha returned to the guest room to find several soldiers marching Jane off. She wandered through the palace to find everyone else.   
She got the throne room and saw an angry Thor came to confront Odin about holding Jane prisoner. She eavesdropped from a safe distance away.   
“I do not wish to fight with you,” said Odin.  
“Nor I with you,” Thor said, “but I intend to pursue Malekith.”  
His statement surprised Aisha.   
“We possess the Aether,” said Odin, “Malekith will come to us.”  
“Yes, and you will destroy us.”  
Aisha thought about the previous day’s devastation. Asgard definitely wouldn’t withstand another invasion.  
“You overestimate the power of these creatures,” said Odin.  
“No, I value our people’s lives.” Thor spoke with determination. “I’ll take Jane to the Dark World and draw the enemy away from Asgard. When Malekith pulls the Aether from Jane, it will be exposed and vulnerable, and I will destroy it and him.”  
 _Are you sure?_ Aisha thought.  
Odin looked disapproving. “If you fail, you risk this weapon falling into the hands of our enemies.”  
“The risk is far greater if we do nothing,” Thor pressed. “His ship could be over our heads right now and we’d never even know it.”  
Aisha supposed that meant that the ships could turn invisible.   
“If and when he comes, his men will fall by ten thousand Asgardian blades,” said Odin with certainty.  
“And how many of our men shall fall on theirs?” Thor demanded.  
“As many as are needed!” Odin bellowed.   
There was a long pause.  
“We will fight!” said Odin. “Until the last Asgardian breath, the last drop of Asgardian blood.”  
Aisha cringed.   
“And how are you different from Malekith?” said Thor.  
Odin chuckled. “The difference, my son, is that I will _win.”_ He walked off.  
Aisha mulled over their conversation. They were both torn by Frigga’s death, that was for certain.   
But why did Odin want to risk losing more people?   
Now Thor and Odin were now on different sides. And she agreed with Thor.

Odin held a war council, but Aisha suspected that very little would get done there. Thor went to a tavern in town to talk to his three friends and Heimdall.   
While waiting in the palace, Aisha mentally scrolled through the spells she had memorised.   
Then she wondered if they would allow her to do with anything. Why would Thor risk going on a mission with a person he couldn’t trust?  
On the other hand, he might be willing to do anything for Jane.  
She would have to be shrewd. She couldn’t miss this chance.  
When Thor and his friends finally came back, Sif and Thor were talking.  
“We don’t know her, and we certainly shouldn’t trust her,” Thor was saying.  
Aisha felt her feelings rise. Her plan was working.  
“Why?” said Sif.   
“She has no idea what we’re up against!” Thor cried.  
“We cannot judge her when we haven’t seen what she’s capable of.”  
Thor huffed. “You had better be right about her.”  
Aisha hurried back to her place and pretended to look somewhere else. Thor and Sif came over a few seconds later.  
“Can we trust you to keep a secret?” Sif asked.  
Aisha pretended to think, then nodded slowly.  
Thor outlined his plan: bring Jane to Svartalfheim, the Dark Elves’ realm, let Malekith draw out the Aether, and defeat him while his guard was lowered.  
Aisha wondered whether or not to agree. Usually she had her best friend, Kathleen, to help her. Relying on her own instincts was pretty hard.  
Frigga had died keeping the Aether from Malekith. How could they just bring it straight to him?  
“We’re not forcing you to help us,” said Sif. “Much is at risk.”  
Kathleen would always choose the route with the fewest deaths.   
“I’ll help you,” Aisha said. “What do you want me to do?”  
“Anything you can,” Thor replied. “My father will not let us leave easily.” He paused. “And I am seeking help from someone else. Someone I swore I would never ask a favour of again.”  
Aisha’s pulse sped up.

As soon as the messenger had left, Loki had flown into a rage. He had spent the night lost in miserable thoughts, not knowing what was real and what wasn’t.  
She was gone. He hadn’t realised how much he had treasured Frigga until now. Out of everyone he knew, she hated him the least.   
And the last thing he had ever said to her was that she was not his mother.  
He heard somebody coming and panicked. He was ridiculously unkempt with a bleeding foot. Broken furniture lay all around him.  
He conjured an illusion that filled his entire cell, showing himself sane and his furniture intact.  
Then he saw that it was Thor who was approaching.   
Loki’s illusion came close to the glass. “Thor. After all this time and now you come to visit me.” He leaned forward. _“Why?_ Have you come to gloat? To mock?”  
“Loki, enough,” said Thor. “No more illusions.”  
Loki’s shoulders slumped. Thor was not going to be fooled. The whole illusion disappeared, showing him slumped on the floor at the back of the cell.  
“Now you see me, brother,” said Loki from his place by the wall.   
Apparently unmoved, Thor walked around the cell to be closer to Loki.   
“Did she suffer?” Loki asked in a melancholy tone.  
“I did not come here to share our grief,” said Thor gruffly. “Instead I offer you the chance of a far richer sacrament.”  
Loki was about to respond when he saw Aisha coming up to the cell. Her expression turned shocked at the sight of him.   
Loki shifted his attention back to Thor. “Go on.”  
Thor didn’t seem to have seen Aisha. “I know you seek vengeance as much as I do,” he continued.   
_Vengeance._ The word stirred something in Loki.  
“You help me escape Asgard,” Thor said, “and I will grant it to you. Vengeance. And afterward, this cell.”  
Thor obviously wanted to bring something out of Asgard desperately.   
Loki owed Thor nothing. But the prospect of being released was too good to ignore, no matter what the conditions.  
He chuckled. “You must be _truly_ desperate to come to me for help. What makes you think you can trust me?”  
“I don’t,” said Thor firmly. “Mother did.”   
Loki felt his sadness deepen.  
“You should know that when we fought each other in the past, I did so with a glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there somewhere,” said Thor. “That hope no longer exists to protect you. You betray me, and I will kill you.”  
Loki saw Aisha flinch at the last line.   
He wondered whether Thor had really given up all hope, or was simply threatening him. He pretended to think for a second. “Hm. When do we start?”  
“Now.”   
Loki started feeling happier, more energetic. He looked at Aisha. “So, you’re alive.”   
It was a second before Aisha answered. “Y-yeah, I am.”  
Thor frowned at her. “I told you to stay upstairs.”  
“I know, I heard you.”   
“Why did my friends let you in?” Thor said.   
Aisha just shrugged.   
Loki couldn’t help feeling slightly impressed. Aisha was obviously slyer than she appeared.  
“During this mission,” said Thor, “it will be better for you to do as I tell you.”   
“What?” said Loki.  
“I’m going with you to the Dark World,” Aisha clarified.  
Loki stared at Aisha. Then he stared at Thor. “I never thought you’d rely on someone you only just met.”  
“I trust her more than you,” Thor responded.  
This was more than Loki had expected from Aisha. She was a reckless daredevil. But she must have been somewhat tough, too, provided she wasn’t lying about having fought the Dark Elves.  
Loki felt uncomfortable allowing Aisha to see him in this state. He kept his expression smug. “You too must be truly desperate,” he said, “staying here after what you saw yesterday.”  
“What I saw yesterday is why I’m staying,” said Aisha. “I want to stop more people from dying.”  
Loki heard a note of regret in her voice. “What makes you think you can make the _slightest_ difference to the outcome of this war?”   
Aisha pressed her lips together. “I want to at least try.”  
Loki chuckled. “So you really do not fear death.”  
Thor was looking back and forth between them. “You have spoken before?”  
“When I teleported into Asgard, I arrived in the dungeon,” said Aisha.  
Loki stood up and tried not to wince as he put weight on his left foot. He magically changed his clothes into a more practical outfit. He saw admiration flicker across Aisha’s face.  
Thor pressed a special key against the glass, and the glass vanished.   
As Loki jumped out from the cell, he remembered something. He rounded the corner and seized Aisha by the shoulder.   
_“Loki!”_ Thor shouted.  
Loki kept his gaze on Aisha. “How did you know my name?”   
Aisha scowled. Loki thought he could see her deciding whether or not to lie.  
“Do you know about parallel universes?” she said.  
“Don’t avoid the question,” said Loki.   
“I’m not.”  
Loki dimly remembered reading about such a thing. “Aren’t they just speculation?”  
Aisha’s eyes bored into him. “I _grew up_ in a parallel universe. It has another Earth, but none of the other eight worlds.”  
“How can you be sure it’s a different Earth?” said Loki.   
“Because nothing the Avengers did here happened there,” Aisha said promptly.  
Loki felt sudden hatred at the mention of his old enemies.   
“The answer to your question,” said Aisha, “is that in my universe, everyone has ways of finding out what happened here. I’ve heard of you before.”   
Loki was suddenly on his guard. “How much do you know?”  
“I know how Odin banished Thor, you found out you were a Frost Giant, you became king, you made a deal with Laufey, you killed Laufey, you tried to kill Thor, you left Asgard, you got the Tesseract, you tried to take over Earth and the Avengers defeated you.” Aisha seemed to be enjoying herself.   
“Do all humans in your universe have magic?” said Loki, trying to hide his shame.  
“No,” Aisha answered. “I went to another universe and ate a berry that turned me into a fairy.”  
Loki just looked blank.  
“It’s complicated,” said Aisha.  
Loki was starting to feel jealous. He wanted to ask Aisha how exactly she knew about his universe. What were fairies? What kind of berries allowed people to change their species?  
“I have never heard of such things,” said Thor.  
Loki released Aisha and became smug again. “Your failing, brother, is that you don’t do magic, and you don’t read.”  
Thor was frowning. “We need to go. We’ll be taking one of the Dark Elves’ ships.”  
“You know how to fly it?” said Loki.   
“How hard could it be?”  
Aisha and Loki followed Thor out of the dungeon. Since Thor was obviously avoiding conversation, Loki questioned Aisha about the current situation.   
When she told him about Malekith, the Kursed, the Dark Elves and how Jane Foster had absorbed the Aether, Thor’s betrayal of Odin made sense. Who did Thor care for more than Jane?  
But Aisha’s mind seemed to be elsewhere. And she kept looking at him oddly.   
When they came above ground, soft, natural light washed over Loki. The carvings leapt out from the pillars. He inhaled the fresh air.  
It all felt unreal. He had begun to accept his imprisonment as part of his existence. Now he was free again.  
A different Loki was emerging from the dungeon. And the universe would not be ready for him.


	5. Escape

After watching the movie, the image of Loki’s shocked face had been branded on Aisha’s mind. When she looked at Loki, she saw more than just him – she saw all the sadness and anger that had changed him into a villain.  
“The fate of universe is being put the hands of two people no one in Asgard can trust,” Loki said.  
“They can trust me,” Aisha snapped.   
“But can you trust yourself?” Loki said.  
 _What does he mean by that?_   
Aisha had to say something. “How long are you in prison?”   
“For life.”  
Aisha felt a pang of sadness.   
“I’ve never met a human who was so curious about the affairs of the gods,” Loki remarked.   
“We’re not gods, Loki!” Thor called from in front of them, startling Aisha.   
Then Aisha realised it made sense. The term “god” implied that the Asgardians were the rulers of universe. But it seemed that they were just another species, and the Vikings had been naïve enough to worship them.   
“This is the affair of the whole universe,” Aisha said to Loki.   
“But it’s not your universe,” he said. “Why do you care?”  
“Why do you care?” Aisha asked.  
“I’m just honoured that Asgard asked for my help.”   
“Honoured?” Aisha echoed. “I’d be _insulted_ if people only came to me for help as a last resort.”  
In front of them, Thor rounded a corner.  
“If you are a last resort,” said Loki, “you are probably too weak to save the universe at all.” Before Aisha could respond, Loki sped up and caught up with Thor.  
Aisha pouted. Loki was so annoying she almost liked it.   
“This is so unlike you, brother,” Loki said to a stone-faced Thor. “So … clandestine. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather just punch your way out?”  
“If you keep speaking,” said Thor, “I just might.”  
“Fine. As you wish. I’m not even here.” A flash of green magic, and Loki turned into an Asgardian guard. “Is this better?”  
Aisha’s eyebrows went up. She didn’t know he could shapeshift.  
If Thor was surprised at Loki’s new power, he didn’t show it. “It’s better company at least.”  
“Still, we could be less conspicuous.” Loki turned back into himself, but light covered Thor, and he transformed into Sif.  
Aisha nearly tripped over her own feet.  
“Mmm, brother, you look ravishing!” said Loki.   
Thor looked down at himself. “It will hurt no less when I kill you in this form,” he said in his own voice.   
“Very well,” said Loki. “Perhaps you prefer one of your new companions, given that you seem to like them so much.” He transformed Thor back, but turned himself into Captain America, complete with a blue suit and a round shield.  
“Oh, this is much better,” said Loki, in a different voice. “Costume’s a bit much ... so tight. But the confidence – I can feel the righteousness surging.”   
Loki grinned widely at Aisha. Aisha forced her expression into a scowl.  
He turned back to Thor. “Hey, you wanna have a rousing discussion about truth, honour, patriotism? God bless Amer -”  
Thor slapped his hand over Loki’s mouth and shoved him against a pillar, making Loki undo the spell.   
When Thor removed his hand, Loki said, “What?”  
Behind Thor, a couple of guards walked past them.   
Aisha was staring at Loki with a very weird expression.   
“You can at least furnish me with a weapon,” Loki said to Thor. “My dagger, something!”  
Thor took something from under his cloak and reached for Loki’s hands.   
“At last, a little common sense …” Loki said.  
A pair of handcuffs snapped over his wrists. Loki glared at his brother as the locks whirred into place.   
Aisha had to suppress a laugh.   
Thor smiled at Loki. “And I thought you liked tricks.”   
Sif came up with Jane, whom she had freed.   
Jane stared at Loki. “You’re ...?”  
“Loki,” he answered. “You may have -”  
Jane slapped him across the face. “That was for New York,” she said fiercely.  
 _So, it was in New York,_ Aisha thought. _Why is it always New York?_  
But Loki just grinned. “I like her,” he told Thor.  
Aisha then saw several soldiers coming.  
“I’ll hold them off,” Sif told Thor. “Take her.”  
“Thank you.” Thor walked away with Jane.   
Loki started to follow, but Sif her sword across his throat. “Betray him,” she said, “and I’ll kill you.”   
Loki chuckled in a way that gave Aisha a very strong urge to whack him. “It’s good to see you too, Sif.”  
Sif let him go. She then gave her sword a shake, turning it into a spear.   
Waiting in front of Malekith’s ship was Volstagg. “I will give you as much time as I can,” he promised Thor.   
The Bifrost was closed, but Loki knew other ways out of Asgard. Aisha wondered what they would be like.   
Thor and Volstagg gripped each other’s forearms in a gesture of friendship. “Thank you, my friend,” Thor said. Then in a lower voice, he asked, “Why did you let Aisha enter the dungeon?”   
“She said she had spoken to Loki before,” Volstagg answered, “so I thought she could help you persuade him.”  
Aisha glanced at Loki, and found he was looking at her. He raised his eyebrows playfully.  
Jane nodded at Volstagg, then climbed into the ship after Thor.  
As Loki walked past Volstagg, Volstagg stopped him. “If you even think about betraying him -”   
“You’ll … kill me?” Loki finished. “Evidently there will be a line.”  
Volstagg let Loki go.  
“Won’t Heimdall see us?” Aisha asked.  
“He is on our side,” said Volstagg. “You are certain you want to join them?”  
“Extremely certain.”  
“They’ll be trying to shoot you out of the sky.”  
“Sounds like fun.” Aisha entered the ship.   
The interior was very dark. Thor and Loki were standing in the cockpit, which had an open doorway on the side. Thor was looking at the control panel in confusion.   
“I thought you said you knew how to fly this thing,” said Loki.   
“I said, ‘How hard could it be?’” Thor began hitting random buttons.   
Aisha went back to the doorway and saw many Asgardian guards coming. Volstagg started fighting them with a large axe.  
From behind her, she heard Loki say, “Well, whatever you’re doing, brother, I suggest you do it faster.”  
“Shut up, Loki.”   
Aisha threw a few basketballs at the guards. They tripped and fell over them.  
“You must have missed something,” said Loki.  
“I didn’t,” said Thor. “I’m pressing every button on this thing.”  
“No, don’t hit it, just press it gently.”  
It sounded like Thor was pounding the control panel. “I am pressing it gently. It’s not working!”  
Aisha shook her head.   
Suddenly, the ship’s engine roared to life. Aisha turned and saw a transparent blue sphere form around the cockpit. Thor laughed triumphantly.  
A group of guards converged on Volstagg and brought him down.   
The ship rose off the floor, and gave off a burst of smoke that blasted the soldiers off their feet.  
But as Thor turned the ship around, it hit many of the columns that were still standing, slicing them in two.   
Aisha leaned against the wall of the ship and tried to maintain her balance. Jane started swaying.   
“I think you missed a column,” Loki said.  
“Shut up!” said Thor.   
The ship burst through the wall and flew into the open air, soaring above greenery and golden buildings.   
“You’re not exactly being _secretive_ about this,” said Aisha. She wondered why Thor wasn’t making the ship invisible.   
Loki was smiling. “Forget what I said about you being clandestine.”  
Wind blasted in the doorway, making Aisha’s hair fly out. She wanted to whoop with excitement.   
The ship came to an archway, and Thor quickly changed the ship’s orientation from horizontal to vertical to fly through it. However, he couldn’t keep one position for long, and the ship kept swinging between the two orientations.   
“Look,” said Loki, sounding irritated, “why don’t you let me take over, I’m clearly the best pilot.”  
“Is that right?” Thor challenged. “Well, out of the two of us, which one can _actually_ fly?”  
Loki didn’t answer.   
“I can fly,” Aisha said, “and I could never be a pilot.”  
“You can fly?” Loki echoed.  
The ship flew low, almost scraping the ground. Some people below screamed.   
“Fairies can grow wings,” said Aisha. “You didn’t know that?”  
Some sort of cannon started firing at them. The ship swooped down to avoid the blasts, and Aisha nearly fell.   
Jane, who had been looking giddy, suddenly collapsed on the floor, her eyes half closed.  
“Oh, dear,” said Loki. “Is she dead?”  
“Jane,” said Thor.   
Jane waved her hand dismissively. “I’m okay.”  
More cannons blasted them, and the ship shook. It started spinning, and smashed into the top of a building. Aisha watched some of it break into pieces.  
“Not a word,” Thor told Loki sternly.   
Three small Asgardian ships came into view.  
“Now they’re following us,” said Loki.   
The smaller ships began shooting at them.  
“Now they’re firing at us!” he cried.  
“Yeah, thank you for the commentary, Loki!” Thor snapped. “It’s not at all distracting!”  
“First day of freedom and you’re letting out everything you’ve got, huh?” said Aisha to Loki.   
He smiled.   
The edge of the ship crashed into the neck of a large statue, severing the statue’s head from its body.  
“Well done, you just decapitated your grandfather!” Loki said to Thor.  
 _You’re destroying even more things than the Dark Elves did,_ Aisha thought.  
They started flying over the sea at the edge of Asgard. Aisha looked out the door and saw a small ship flying far below them, steered by Fandral. He motioned for her to jump down.  
“You know, this is wonderful,” Loki told Thor. “This is a _tremendous_ idea. Let’s steal the biggest, most obvious ship in the universe and escape in that! Flying around the city, smashing into everything in sight so everyone can see us! It’s brilliant, Thor! It’s truly -”  
Thor shoved Loki, making Loki fall out of the ship. Aisha could hear Loki screaming as he fell.   
Aisha jumped out after him.   
For a moment, she felt weightless. The cold wind sailed past her, making her ponytail fly. Fandral steered the small ship into position, and Aisha landed on it with easy grace.   
Loki was lying there, paralysed. Then Thor, carrying Jane, jumped down beside Aisha.   
Fandral was laughing. “I see your time in the dungeon has made you no less graceful, Loki!”  
Loki stood up, looking embarrassed and annoyed.   
Malekith’s black ship veered away from them, pursued by the Asgardian ships. They were safe for the moment.  
Loki looked at Thor. “You lied to me. I’m impressed.”  
“I’m glad you’re pleased.” Thor didn’t sound glad at all. He lay Jane down on the floor. “Now, do as you promised. Take us to your secret pathway.”  
 _Now you’re letting him fly,_ Aisha thought.   
Smiling, Loki went to a lever near the back of the ship. The ship swerved to the right, skimming the surface of the water.   
One Asgardian ship had abandoned Malekith’s ship, realising Thor’s ruse, and started firing at the small ship. Loki meandered crazily to dodge the lasers. Aisha held on tight.  
“Fandral,” said Thor.  
“Right.” Fandral picked up a rope that was attached to the ship. “For Asgard.”  
He jumped and used the rope to swing him onto the Asgardian ship. Aisha watched as he knocked the soldiers onboard unconscious. He saluted Thor.   
“Loki!” Thor cried.  
Their ship was heading straight towards a large rock in middle of the sea. Loki was showing no signs of slowing down.   
“If it were easy, everyone would do it,” Loki pointed out.  
“Are you mad?” Thor cried.   
“Possibly.”  
Thor held onto Jane. Aisha squatted down.  
The ship drew terrifyingly close to the rock, then shot into a hidden cave. It was so narrow, the ship scraped the cave walls.  
Colourful sparks zipped past them on either side, similar to the lights in the world-travelling tunnel.   
In a blink of an eye, the cave disappeared, and the ship was in a dark, foul-smelling place. It skidded along the ground, and Aisha fell onto her backside.   
They were in Svartalfheim.  
“Ta-da!” said Loki proudly.


	6. Svartalfheim

Svartalfheim was the most dismal place Aisha had ever seen. The land was black and barren. Green-grey clouds sagged overhead, and only a little sunlight filtered through.   
Loki slowed the ship down and put it in automatic gear.  
“Odin really didn’t want us to leave Asgard,” Aisha remarked.   
“He would have done the same for the woman he loved,” said Thor. He was watching Jane anxiously.   
“And because of your love,” said Loki, “we all face exile upon our return.”  
Aisha wondered if Heimdall, Sif, Volstagg and Fandral had been punished already. Heimdall was probably indispensable, but the rest could be imprisoned or banished.  
Thor looked at Loki coldly. “For us, exile. For you, probably death.”  
“This is an unnecessary risk,” said Loki. “Why not just hide and let Asgard take the blows?”  
“No leader should sacrifice his people!” said Thor. “Malekith make that error, and it gained him nothing.”  
“What?” said Aisha. “When?”  
“Five thousand years ago,” Thor replied. “My grandfather stole the Aether, and Malekith waged a war to get it back. Many Elves were destroyed, and still he failed. Then the Aether was sealed away where no one could find it.” He paused. “No one but Jane.”  
“And now she will die for it,” said Loki.  
Thor thumped the side of the ship with his fist. “She will not!”  
“You really think you can defend her?”  
“I will.” Thor gave Loki a piercing glare. “And so will you.”  
“I will, too,” said Aisha.  
Loki turned to her. “All you have is magic.”  
“Isn’t that enough?”   
“What _kinds_ of magic do you have?”  
Aisha had been waiting for this moment. “I can fly, I have telekinesis, I can fire energy blasts, conjure shields, open portals, cast illusions and control sports equipment. And I know a bunch of spells.”  
Loki snorted. “Is that the best magic humans can do?”  
Aisha’s pity for him was slipping away. “Sports equipment can be deadly.”  
“I would never use magic of such incompetence.”  
“You haven’t seen me fight.”  
“You haven’t seen _me_ fight.”  
Aisha crossed her arms. “Yeah, I have.”  
“Then you should know how strong I am.”  
“So strong that you needed an entire army and a bunch of fish robots to back you up.”  
Loki stood up. “I could still kill you without them.”  
“Why?” said Aisha, undaunted. “You’ve been beaten by humans before.”  
“That was six humans, not one.”  
“It only took one of them to bring you down.”   
“At least I fought them with dignity!”  
“Oh, so when you were fighting the Hulk, that was fighting with dignity?”  
A very awkward silence followed.   
“We’re fighting the Dark Elves,” said Aisha, “not each other.”  
Loki seemed to recover. “If they’re no match for you, they’ll certainly be no match for me.”  
“I’ll kill them before you do,” Aisha challenged.  
“Or not.” Loki grinned at her.  
Aisha caught herself grinning back. What was the matter with her?  
“Enough,” said Thor. “We need a plan.”  
Loki, Thor and Jane formulated a plan, but Aisha contributed little. She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts.  
She got strange feelings when she talked to Loki. It wasn’t something she’d felt about any other villain. With Obsidian, she’d just been angry. With Voldemort, she’d been really, really scared.  
But with Loki, she felt … intrigued.  
Aisha had never before met someone who straddled the line between good and evil like this. In her past experiences, good was good, evil was evil, and those who switched sides stuck to them.  
She sneaked a look at Loki. Was he really just going along with Thor obediently? She doubted it.   
Aisha made a resolution to watch him. 

Loki went over the plan with Thor and Jane several times. By the time they were finished, they had reached a ruined city.   
The landscape was littered with large broken or fallen structures. The whole place had a stench of death. Loki adjusted the lever to fly around them.   
Another plan began taking shape in his mind. He would not let this moment of freedom go to waste. There were so many possibilities …   
Except that Thor was keeping a close eye on him, and probably Aisha, too. That would have to be dealt with.   
Thor put a blanket over Jane.  
Loki looked at the sleeping mortal in wonder. “What I could do with the power flowing through those veins …”  
“It would consume you,” said Thor.   
“She’s holding up alright,” Loki pointed out, “for now.”  
Thor bristled. “She’s strong in ways you’d never even know.”  
“Say goodbye,” said Loki.   
“Not this day!” said Thor.   
“This day, the next, a hundred years, it’s nothing!” said Loki spitefully. “It’s a heartbeat. You’ll never be ready. The only woman whose love you prized will be snatched from you.”   
“And will that satisfy you?” Thor said.  
“Satisfaction’s not in my nature,” Loki replied.   
“Surrender’s not in mine.”  
“The son of Odin,” said Loki in scorn.  
“No, not just of Odin!” said Thor. “You think you alone were loved of Mother? You had her tricks, but I had her trust!”  
His comment made Loki even more furious. “Trust? Was that her last expression, _trust?_ While you let her die?”  
“What good were you in your cell?” Thor demanded.  
“Who put me there?” cried Loki, in a challenging tone. _“Who put me there?”_  
“You know damn well! You know damn well who!” Thor shoved Loki against the side of the ship and raised his fist.  
Loki braced himself, but the punch didn’t come.   
After a few seconds, Thor let him go. “She wouldn’t want us to fight,” he said, sounding reluctant.  
Loki relaxed. “Well, she wouldn’t exactly be shocked,” he said.   
Both of them smiled a little.  
“I wish I could trust you.” Thor turned away.   
Loki’s voice became a whisper. “Trust my rage.”  
He saw Aisha pressing herself against the side of the ship with an expression of fear. For a few moments, he had forgotten she was there.  
“You must be wondering why we decided to be allies,” Loki said.  
Aisha’s voice was small. “You had no choice.”  
She was exhibiting something deeper than fear. As if she, too, was hurt to see them fighting.  
Loki cocked his head to one side. “Why do you care, Aisha?” he asked. “It’s merely a quarrel between enemies.”  
“You were once brothers,” said Aisha.  
“We were never brothers. It was all a lie.”  
Dismay came over Aisha’s face.  
“You think differently?” Loki raised his voice. “Have you any brothers or sisters?”  
“No, I – I fight with my mother a lot. But we always make up in the end.”  
“What did you fight about?”  
“She – she wants me to stop world-travelling,” Aisha stammered. “And world-travelling is half my life.”  
Loki recalled her boundless excitement upon entering Asgard. But that still wasn’t as terrible as losing a family.  
“Don’t try to understand what I’ve faced,” he said.   
“I don’t understand it,” said Aisha. “I just pity you for it.”  
“Pity does me nothing,” Loki spat. “The only person who has ever shown me pity is dead.” He looked away.  
From behind him, Aisha’s words came out very strong. “She didn’t suffer. And she died with pride.”  
He faced her again.   
“I wish I could’ve saved her,” said Aisha.  
Loki didn’t meet her eyes. That was precisely how he felt. “How did she die?”  
“The Kursed stabbed her,” said Aisha. “I saw two swords lying on the floor. I think … she was fighting Malekith.”  
Loki’s spirits lifted slightly. She had died a warrior.   
Then a longing for revenge came over him. The Kursed would pay for murdering an innocent woman.  
All of a sudden, Jane’s eyes opened. She seemed to be in a trance, staring at something no one else could see.   
“Jane.” Thor started towards her as she stood up.  
Then Loki saw a large black ship coming down in a valley in front of them.  
“Malekith,” said Jane.  
Loki looked at Aisha. She had a wild look in her eyes. It was bravery – or maybe craziness.   
In just the last few minutes, Aisha had given him given him both insulting and encouraging words. It was as if she just took whichever side she agreed with at the moment.  
He wondered what her motive was. First she’d claimed to be seeking adventure, then she’d said she wanted to save people, and now she was interfering with his personal affairs.   
He would have to be on his guard against her.


	7. A Death

They came to a large valley surrounded by ridges. Malekith, six Elves and the Kursed came out of the ship that was parked there.  
Loki landed the small ship behind a ridge. Thor gave Loki a dagger, which he hid in his coat. All of them lay on the slope, watching Malekith. A strong wind blew dust into their faces.  
“Alright, are you ready?” said Thor. Jane nodded.  
“I am,” Loki replied.  
Aisha sighed inwardly. She had been told just to keep out of sight. It was irritating to not be wanted.  
“Call me if you need help,” Aisha said. She rubbed her nose, hating the smell of the place.  
Loki and Thor stood up, in full view of the Elves.   
“You know, this plan of yours is going to get us killed,” said Loki.  
“Yeah, possibly,” Thor responded.  
Loki held out his cuffed hands. Thor just looked at them. “You still don’t trust me, brother?” said Loki.  
“Would you?” Thor unlocked Loki’s handcuffs.   
Loki rubbed his hands together. “No, I wouldn’t!”   
Then he drew his dagger and stabbed Thor in the stomach. Then he kicked him down the hill. Mjölnir rolled away from him.   
“Thor!” Jane cried. “No!” She hurried after him.   
Aisha risked climbing a little higher to see what was going on. She sent dust and pebbles rolling down the slope.   
“You really think I cared about Frigga, about anybody?”Loki kicked Thor violently. “All I ever wanted was you and Odin dead at my feet!”  
Thor pushed himself up and tried to summon Mjölnir, but Loki sliced off his right hand, making Thor yell. Mjölnir missed its target and landed far behind him.  
Aisha knew it was a trick, but she still winced.  
Jane ran towards Thor, but Loki seized her.  
“Malekith!” Loki cried. “I am Loki of Jotunheim, and I bring you a gift!” He threw Jane at Malekith’s feet. “I ask only one thing in return: a good seat from which to watch Asgard burn.”  
The Kursed said something to Malekith in their language. The Dark Elves formed a circle around Jane.   
“Look at me.” Malekith used his foot to roll Thor onto his back.   
With one hand, Malekith made Jane levitate in the air. Her arms were extended, and her hair and cloak drifted in the wind.   
A misty red substance started to flow grotesquely out of Jane’s face. Once it was all out, Malekith let Jane fall. The Aether floated towards his hand.  
“Loki, now!” Thor cried.   
The illusion of Thor’s severed hand disappeared. Mjölnir flew to Thor, and Thor shot lightning at the Aether.   
Loki threw himself over Jane to shield her. Aisha was holding her breath.  
The Aether shattered in a cloud of smoke and fell in scarlet shards on the ground.  
After a few seconds, the red crystals trembled, then rose together as one.  
“No,” Aisha whispered.  
The Aether reformed into a stream of red liquid, and gushed into Malekith through his eyes and mouth. He yelled with effort.   
Then it was all absorbed. Malekith’s face turned black, and his eyes seemed to gleam. He began to head back to his ship.   
Thor hit three Elves aside with his hammer and ran towards Malekith.   
The Kursed threw a vortex weapon towards Loki and Jane.  
Loki pushed Jane aside, but the vortex began to suck him in.   
Then Thor flew in front of the vortex and knocked Loki out of the way. The brothers landed on the ground in a cloud of dust.   
Aisha shook herself out of her daydream. “Why are you guys getting to have all the fun?” She vaulted over the ridge and sped down the slope.   
Thor flew towards the ship, but the Kursed knocked him back. The two began beating each other up, and the Kursed managed to send Thor flying away.   
Malekith’s ship took off and vanished.   
While the Kursed kept Thor occupied, Dark Elves surrounded Loki. Aisha had faith in Loki’s abilities, but she still wanted to help him.   
An Elf ran at Loki, but Loki dodged the attack and stabbed the Elf with his dagger.   
Aisha approached another Elf from behind and sent his sword flying out of his sheath. Then the sword spun around in mid-air and pierced his chest.   
She felt the glorious urge to fight swelling in her chest again.  
Another Elf came at her with a sword. Aisha jumped to avoid the blade, and did a somersault in the air.   
A blinding flash later, Aisha was in her fairy form, with a new outfit and a pair of strong wings.   
Aisha was held aloft in the air. Before the Elf could react, Aisha kicked him hard in the face. His sword flew out of his hand.  
The second Elf had pulled his sword from his chest. He seemed undeterred by both Aisha and Loki staring at him murderously.  
The Elf charged, and Aisha blasted magic at him, slowing him down slightly. Then Loki swiped his dagger across the Elf’s neck, and the Elf fell.   
The two looked at each other. Aisha felt a mixture of awe and smugness. Loki probably felt the same way.   
Out of the corner of her eye, Aisha saw the Kursed advancing on Thor. Thor made Mjölnir fly towards him, but the Kursed swatted it away.   
The Kursed began pounding Thor with its fists. He clearly needed help.  
Both Loki and Aisha started towards them, but Loki ran faster.  
From behind the Kursed, Loki plunged the Kursed’s sword through the monster’s body. The end of the blade stuck through the Kursed’s chest.  
The Kursed stopped attacking Thor and slowly turned to face Loki.   
Then he picked Loki up and pulled him into the blade.  
“No!” Aisha cried in horror.  
“No!” Thor shouted.  
Loki gave a painful groan. The Kursed threw him down onto the ground, like he was nothing more than a doll.   
Loki looked up at the Kursed with disdain. “See you in Hel, monster.”  
The Kursed suddenly realised that the vortex weapon he wore had been activated. Before he could do anything, the weapon exploded.  
The Kursed was sucked into himself. Orange-red energy, like lava, poured from his mouth as he squeezed and twisted. Then he was gone.  
Thor fell on his knees beside Loki. “No, no!” His eyes were full of tears. “Fool, you didn’t listen!”  
“I know, I’m a fool. I’m a fool!” Loki twitched violently. His face was pale.  
Aisha knelt down, feeling stupid for repeating her mistake.  
Thor cradled his brother in his arms. “Stay with me. Stay!”  
“I’m sorry,” Loki whispered. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry …”  
“Shh.” Thor nodded comfortingly. “It’s alright. I’ll tell Father what you did here today.”  
“I didn’t do it for him.” Loki’s eyes closed, his head fell back, and his skin became blue, his true Frost Giant form.   
Thor gave an agonised cry.   
Aisha sat on the ground, the wind howling in her ears, watching yet another life fade before her eyes.  
Then, as if she was seeing a vision, the scarred man’s face returned. But this time, she saw his face crack, and his whole body crumble into dust.

Thor was rocking his brother in his arms like a baby. Jane stood to one side, looking distressed.  
The air chilled Aisha through her clothes. She felt sudden anger at the Dark Elves, and at the universe in general. What right had they to end Loki’s life like this?  
Aisha wondered about Loki’s last statement. Had he killed the Kursed for Thor, or for Frigga?  
After a long time, Thor put Loki down. The wind had picked up, and a green funnel cloud was heading towards them.   
Shielding themselves from the dust, Aisha, Thor and Jane climbed the ridge and headed for the hills, where they found a cave.  
Aisha’s skin was prickling, but it wasn’t from the wind. It was as if her body sensed something.  
She looked around, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. Just dusty wind.  
Thor and Jane went deep into the cave, but Aisha stood in the entrance, squinting. She wiped her glasses on her shirt and looked again. Still nothing.  
The wind started to die down.  
Aisha looked back. “I – I think I dropped something. Back there. I’ll go back and get it.” Thor gave her a slight nod, and she hurried out.  
Ignoring the wind, Aisha held up her hands and felt the air. Something was moving. Something gentle, but brimming with power.   
_Never ignore anything you feel,_ a teacher had once told her. _Magic comes in a million different forms. It can even be invisible._  
Aisha put both her hands near her chest and said a spell she had been taught, moving her hands outwards as she did so.  
The air all around her turned yellowish-green.   
She knew exactly what it was: a cloud of invisible magic, made visible only to her. There seemed to be no end to it.  
 _Where does it come from?_ she wondered.  
The sickly cloud was moving slowly. Aisha transformed into a fairy and flew into the opposite direction, came to the crater and gasped.   
The cloud was flowing out of Loki’s body. His magic was leaving him.  
All this magic was _potential._ He had more powers than the ones she had seen him use so far. Probably very strong ones. She couldn’t let him die when there was so much left that he could do.   
Aisha balled her fists. She could save him. Surely among all this magic was something she could use.   
She squeezed her eyes shut. A spell for minor wounds came back to her.   
Aisha ran to Loki, transformed back into a human and laid her hands on his abdomen. As she said the spell, she pulled magic from the cloud around her. Magic built up inside her as thick and heavy as mud.   
Aisha opened her eyes and tried to ease the magic into Loki’s wound, but it all burst out of her in a big explosion.


	8. The Fairy School

So this was what it felt like to die.  
Loki felt excruciating pain, as if his soul was being torn from him. Every part of his body was weakening. He barely registered Thor’s voice as his mind grew foggy.  
After a while, though, his agony disappeared. He felt relaxed and began to sink into sleep.  
Then a thousand volts of electricity hit him. The sudden rush of energy jerked him back into full consciousness.   
He started panting hard. His body was tingling all over, and he had an unbearable pain in his abdomen.   
Then he saw that Aisha was crouching over him, her face concerned.   
“Wh-what did you do?” His voice was pitifully soft and hoarse.   
“Are you okay?” said Aisha in a worried tone. It was the kindest voice Loki had heard in a long time.  
Loki didn’t know how to answer her. He was alive, but he felt terrible. “I suppose I could use some comfort in my last moments.”  
“You’re not gonna die.” Aisha sounded almost tearful.  
“What can you do to save a dying man?”  
Aisha made a piece of cloth appear, and put it over Loki’s wound. The blood quickly seeped through the cloth. “I can get help from someone.”   
“Asgard won’t save me,” said Loki “She is not here to protect me anymore.”  
“‘She’?” Comprehension dawned on Aisha’s face. “You mean your mother?”   
Loki could feel the sudden burst of energy slipping away. Whatever spell Aisha had cast wouldn’t last long.  
“I can bring you somewhere else,” she said.  
“Earth and Jotunheim already hate me,” said Loki. “The other realms will follow.”  
Aisha began to say something, stopped, then spoke again. “I can take you to another universe.”  
A spark of excitement appeared inside Loki.   
“Can you stand?” said Aisha.   
Loki pressed the cloth against his wound. Putting his arm around Aisha, he staggered up, careful not to touch Aisha’s skin. The sudden movement made poison arrows of pain dart through his body.  
Aisha held out her hand, palm out, and sent out a beam of bright orange energy. It formed an inward-sucking vortex.  
It occurred to Loki that Heimdall could be watching. But he didn’t have enough power to cloak them.  
With Aisha’s help, he staggered into the vortex and found himself in a moving tunnel of light. The rushing movement made him dizzy, so he closed his eyes. A crazy chorus of noises came from either side of him.  
Then it all stopped. He could feel the sun burning his skin.   
With effort, Loki opened his eyes and looked around. The sunlight was blinding. From horizon to horizon, there was nothing but golden sand.   
“You brought me to the _desert?”_ Loki’s words came out in another language. His face scrunched up in surprise.  
“It’s French,” said Aisha in English. “French is the main language of this universe. If you want to speak English, you have to concentrate.”  
Then she stretched her hand over the ground and murmured something.  
It was obviously a spell, because the sand in front of them cleared to reveal a large hole Loki hadn’t realised was there.   
Staircases led down into the hole. There were doorways in its sides. It was the courtyard of an underground building.  
Loki was in awe of the construction, even if it was primitive. He wondered if Aisha had felt this way when she had entered Asgard.  
Aisha helped Loki down the stairs and through one of the doors. It was cold inside, probably because of some air-cooling system.  
“Aren’t there any people here?” Loki asked.  
“It’s Saturday afternoon. The school will be very empty now.”  
“School?”  
“For fairies.” Aisha led him down a circular hall and knocked on a door.  
A pale green face peered out. It was a young lady with orange hair and pointy ears on the top of her head. She took one look at Loki and ushered them in.  
The room was full of unusually long beds. Loki gladly lay down on one, still holding the bloodstained cloth over his wound.  
“He was stabbed,” Aisha told the lady. “With a very big sword.” She said it in French, but Loki understood it automatically.  
As the lady shifted, Loki saw a thin green tail poking out from under her skirt. It had a tuft of orange fur on the end.   
“This is an infirmary, not a hospital,” the lady told Aisha, frowning. “We have no obligation to care for your friends.”  
“We’re not friends, Hayley,” Aisha said.   
Loki realised that Aisha hadn’t needed to tell Hayley her name, or explain that he was from another universe. She was well-known here, then.   
Hayley gave Loki a withering look, as if he was a disgusting insect. “Who is he?” she asked Aisha.  
How rude could she be?  
“I am Loki, of Asgard,” said Loki loudly. He was still speaking French.   
Hayley looked at him briefly, then back at Aisha. “Doesn’t Asgard have nurses and doctors? What makes me so special?”  
Aisha pressed her hands against the sides of her legs. “It’s … it’s a long story, alright? A very long story.”  
With a sigh, Hayley went over to Loki and reached for his wound. Before he could warn her, her hand brushed against his.   
She yelped as her fingers blackened and let off some smoke. But then the wound faded and vanished.  
Hayley rubbed her fingers. “I can will pain away,” she explained to Loki.   
“Your mind is that powerful?” said Loki.  
“I’m from Pensée, planet of thought,” Hayley said, like it was obvious.  
So she was from a planet with thought magic. How many other magical planets were there?  
Hayley gently lifted Loki’s hand. This time, her skin didn’t burn as severely. She peeled off the cloth and examined the wound.   
“You _will_ heal him, right?” said Aisha.  
“It would be heartless of me to not heal someone injured this badly.” Hayley looked at Aisha sternly. “But once he’s healed, he leaves.”  
Loki didn’t have time to think about her comment. Now that he no longer had to move, he was becoming sleepy.  
“Is Kathleen here?” Aisha asked.  
“No,” Hayley responded.   
As Loki’s eyes closed, he heard Aisha saying quietly, “Blue is his normal skin colour, but he uses magic to disguise it. If it turns … tan, it’s a good sign.”

The earth-coloured halls embraced Aisha warmly. The school was stuffy, but to Aisha it was almost like home.  
She peeked into every room she passed, glimpsing maps, magical violins and racks of potions. She remembered how she had once sat at the desks, or practised magic in the gym. Aisha wanted to look at her old apartment, but she didn’t want to intrude on another student’s room.  
After walking one circle around the school, Aisha realised how tired she was. She showered in the teachers’ apartments, changed her clothes, had a light snack and collapsed onto a spare bed.   
She wondered how long it would take Loki’s skin to turn Asgardian again. Bodies naturally regenerated magic, but he seemed too weak to do it right now.  
Had she made the right choice?   
Aisha pushed the thought away as she sank into sleep. Right or wrong, there was no turning back.  
Then she saw the scarred man again.   
He was reaching towards her, tears running down his cheeks. One of his arms ended in a stump.  
“I’m sorry I tried to kill people!” he cried. “I’m sorry I betrayed everyone, I’m sorry I – I’m sorry for everything!”  
“Just shut up!” Aisha yelled, unable to stop herself. “You’re lying! Shut up and go away!”  
Aisha’s eyes sprang open, horrified. 

Loki slept right through the afternoon and night. In the morning, he was still in terrible pain, but he couldn’t believe he was alive.  
His senses sharpened. His shoes and the outer layers of his clothes had been removed, and he could feel bandages around his wound. There was also a bandage around his wounded foot.  
Hayley was busy making remedies on the other side of the room. When she saw that Loki was awake, she gave him a drink that lessened his headache.  
She shook her head as she looked at his wound. “How in the world did this happen to you?”  
Loki gave her an unreadable expression.  
Hayley held up her hands. “Fine. Don’t tell me.” She gently lifted his tunic and unwrapped the bandages to apply some medicine.

Aisha came in after she had her breakfast.   
Loki didn’t know what to say to her. Her actions had shocked him beyond measure.   
“Is this where you learned all your magic?” he asked her, putting effort into his words. Sure enough, they came out as English.   
Aisha nodded.   
“How could simply eating a berry change who you are?” said Loki.  
“I’m not all fairy,” said Aisha. “I’m still part human.”  
Loki took a deep breath. “Why are you doing this? You’re missing the adventure.”  
“We can stay here for a month and go back to the exact same time we left,” said Aisha. “The others won’t even know we were gone.”  
Loki pictured Thor, Odin, Malekith and everyone else in his universe frozen in place, awaiting his return.  
Bizarre as Aisha’s action had been, Loki couldn’t help feeling some gratitude. Just when everyone had abandoned him, Aisha had appeared.   
He forced himself to relax. They were just chatting. Like ordinary friends.  
“I want to know how you saved me,” he said.  
“I used … a healing spell,” said Aisha. “When you were dying, all your magic came out of your body. My magic combined with that magic. So it was actually your own powers that healed you.”  
“Is that possible?”  
“Magic is sticky,” said Aisha. “Similar kinds of magic are attracted to each other.”  
Loki was impressed by her knowledge.   
The clock struck eight. This was followed by the sound of many doors opening and girls chattering in the hall.  
“Excuse me.” Aisha stood up, her eyes suddenly fierce. “There’s someone I need to talk to.”

The previous afternoon, a student had come into the infirmary complaining of a stomachache and seen Loki asleep. When rumours started flying, Hayley had been forced to tell everyone what had happened.   
Now, the gossip mill was running at full speed. At breakfast, Aisha had been the target of hundreds of unwanted questions.   
Aisha knew who the gossip queen was, though: a girl called Espa.  
Despite the crowds of fairies, it wasn’t hard for Aisha to pick Espa out – she was six foot four and had bright red skin.   
Espa looked a bit frightened when Aisha came up with a ferocious glare.  
“What have you been gossiping about?” Aisha demanded.  
Espa swung her arms wide. “Come on, we’re all _fascinated_ by the guy you brought in -”  
“I know what you’re all saying, and I want you to stop it!” Aisha shouted.   
A small crowd gathered around the two girls.  
Espa grinned. “Well, you _are_ the last person anyone expected to bring a man to our school -”  
“It isn’t what you think!” Aisha cried. “We’re not even friends!”  
Espa and a few other fairies giggled.   
This was one thing Aisha hated about some girls. They spent so much time fantasising about guys, they thought that everyone else did, too.   
“How did you meet?” Espa asked.  
“It doesn’t matter!”  
Espa leaned towards her. “Do you think he’s _cute?”_  
“No!”  
Shaking her head, Espa walked off with her friends, still laughing.  
Aisha could feel the blood in her head pounding furiously.


	9. Different

It didn’t take long for Loki to notice how famous he’d become. Fairies popped into the infirmary all morning, saying they had headaches or backaches, but every single one of them turned their faces his way.  
What surprised Loki was the variety of species in the school. The fairies had many different colours of skin, heights and physical features.  
Hayley was a very strict guard. She insisted that Loki didn’t need the disturbance, not to mention embarrassment. But Loki secretly enjoyed all the attention.  
As much as she seemed reluctant to, Hayley paid attention to Loki’s every need. She periodically checked his wounds. She made sure he had enough to eat. She even sent his dagger to the school’s weapons master for cleaning.  
Loki felt like he was a prince again.  
This kindness was unexpected, which made him puzzled. He had always believed he was deserving of the utmost respect, so why was he surprised when he received it?  
To take his mind off the pain, Loki pestered Hayley with questions.   
He learned that this galaxy had dozens of planets, with some people who could do magic and some who could not. The ones who could do magic were called either warlocks or enchantresses. Every planet produced a specific kind of magic. The planet he was on now was called École.  
But then a new type of female magic user, fairies, had appeared out of nowhere. They had powers no one had seen before.   
Calpurnia’s school was the only international school available for fairies. Students came from all over the galaxy.   
“Are you a fairy?” Loki asked Hayley.  
“No, I’m an enchantress,” she answered. “My magic is so weak, I’ve already mastered everything there is for me to master.”  
Loki was surprised that she admitted her weakness so readily. “And you are content to live like this?”  
“If my will is strong enough,” said Hayley, “I don’t need magic to make things happen.”  
The door opened a crack, and a student poked her head in. “Hayley, I -”  
Hayley’s face darkened. “I know you don’t have a sore leg, _out!”_  
The student backed away. 

Aisha returned to the teacher’s apartment and slumped into an armchair. The reality of what she had done started to sink onto her.   
She slapped her forehead. How could she have been so stupid? Loki was dangerous. It wasn’t that Asgard wouldn’t help him – he wanted to keep his survival secret.   
She had saved him so he could fulfil his dreams. But all his dreams were evil.  
It had been dangerous to bring him here, and tell him about school. He could do anything with this information.   
Her terror almost crippling her, Aisha bolted from her chair. When she got to the principal’s office, she knocked on the door urgently.   
“Come in,” said a gentle voice.  
Aisha entered. The elderly principal, Calpurnia, was signing some documents, but gave Aisha a warm smile.   
Aisha burst out, “I did something really, really stupid. And now I’m gonna pay for it.”  
Calpurnia was a slight woman with white curls and glass earrings. She set down her pen. “There is no shame in doing a good deed, Aisha.”  
“It’s not that,” said Aisha. “Loki is … bad.”   
Calpurnia gestured for her to sit down.  
Aisha told Loki’s story slowly. Calpurnia didn’t look away the entire time.   
At the end, Aisha said, “Did I do the right thing?”  
The principal seemed to think for a moment. “It’s hard to say. It was kind, but the consequences …”   
“I caused trouble,” said Aisha. “I mean, he’s gonna cause trouble.”  
Calpurnia put her hand on Aisha’s. “What do you think would be the wisest course of action?”  
“Turn him in,” said Aisha. “But that would mean betraying him.”  
Calpurnia nodded. Aisha was sure the old woman could sense her conflicted loyalties.   
“And -” Aisha gulped. “I – I want to help Loki. Not just heal him, but … _change_ him. Make him a good guy again.”  
Calpurnia raised her eyebrows.  
“Kathleen did it,” Aisha pointed out.  
“You know people, Aisha,” said Calpurnia comfortingly. “I know you can learn to understand him.”  
“But can I change him?” Aisha asked.  
“You cannot force a change.”  
There was a moment of eerie silence.   
Aisha barely looked at Calpurnia. “What if he kills me?”   
“Would you like me to speak to him?” Calpurnia asked. 

Loki opened his eyes to see a smiling woman with curly white hair standing over him. Hayley had left the infirmary for a while.   
“Hello, Loki,” the lady said in English. “I’m Calpurnia, the school principal. Are you healing well?”  
“Yes,” Loki said. “You don’t mind your school being used as a hospital?”  
Calpurnia sat down on a nearby chair. “Hayley may disagree, but my school is open to everyone who wishes to come.”  
“It seems like an unnecessary effort,” Loki commented.   
“Aisha is sacrificing a lot by bringing you here,” said Calpurnia. “The other fairies have said all sorts of nasty things about her. And she already has a poor reputation as it is.”  
Loki could never imagine Aisha having a good reputation. “She should have known better.”  
“She did,” said Calpurnia.   
Loki frowned. What did Aisha want so desperately that she was willing to go through all this?  
“I am sorry for whatever you suffered,” said Calpurnia. “It must have been terrible.”  
Loki didn’t want to sound like a weakling. “I’m alive.”  
Calpurnia got up. “Well, I wish you a speedy recovery.” She paused. “So that you may continue with your affairs.”   
Her gaze was gentle, but Loki thought she was seeing more about him than he wanted her to.  
He felt a pang of shame. Even here, people regarded him with suspicion. 

On the second day, Loki woke up with Asgardian skin again.   
His spirits rose. He would be out of here soon. Then he could continue with his plan.  
Aisha came early, and seemed glad to see the change in his skin. Hayley left them alone, probably out of politeness.   
“You said your mother wants you to stop world-travelling,” said Loki.  
Aisha sighed. “She thinks I should live a normal life.”  
Aisha reminded Loki of Thor – brash and violent. “And she doesn’t stop you?” Loki said.  
“She doesn’t have control over me anymore,” said Aisha. “In fact, I don’t think she ever did.”  
Loki smirked at her rebellion.   
“She sees world-travelling as a holiday,” said Aisha. “Something that isn’t important. She doesn’t want me to make friends, or change people’s lives.”  
Loki was suddenly on his guard. “Changing people’s lives … that sounds impossible.”  
“But it isn’t.”  
“Helping people and improving their lives are not always the same thing.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Try too hard,” Loki said, “and you may end up making their lives worse.” He rolled over and didn’t look at her again.

The day was calm and restful. The only indications that time were passing were the bells, the ticking of the clock and the arrival of his meals.  
However, Loki was bored. He wished he had a book to read.  
As soon as his legs regained some strength, Loki began trying to stand and walk around, holding on the bed.   
One morning, Loki could hear Aisha yelling at someone outside the infirmary. Then she stomped in, slamming the door.  
“Have you no friends here?” said Loki, leaning against the bedframe.   
Aisha came over to his bed. “The only friend I ever had here was my best friend, Kathleen, but now she’s back in my universe.”  
Just like him, Aisha was all alone.  
“Why are you helping me, Aisha?” Loki asked. He was determined to get an answer.  
“Because I want to,” Aisha said.  
“People don’t help each other for no reason. They always want something.”  
“I don’t want anything!”  
Loki felt himself slipping, and pushed himself up straight. “Something changed in you overnight. You started seeing me differently. Why?”  
Aisha swallowed. “I saw what happened to you, after Odin told you the truth. I saw you fall.” She seemed reluctant to tell him exactly how she knew.  
“And then?”  
“I … pitied you,” said Aisha.  
They were right back where they’d started.   
Loki decided to try another route. “I don’t see why you should pity me. I am not human.”   
Aisha’s head shot up. “So? We’re both people.”  
Loki’s forehead creased. “People?”  
“That’s what Kathleen calls intelligent beings.”  
“Who do you consider ‘people’?”  
“Um, humans, fairies, enchantresses, warlocks, monsters, aliens, talking animals, Asgardians, Frost Giants -”  
 _“Frost Giants?”_ Loki interjected.  
Aisha seemed to tense up for a while. “Yeah, they’re people too.”  
“Who gave you that delusion?”  
“You did.”  
Loki’s stomach clenched. “I’m not like them.”  
“I know. I see no difference between you and the other Asgardians.”   
He could see where this conversation was going. “I’ve always been different from them.”  
“That doesn’t mean you have to be _treated_ differently,” Aisha pressed.   
“They will always treat me as different.”  
“Since when does ‘different’ mean the same thing as ‘bad’?”  
Loki was determined to get his point across. “No universe is ever that harmonious. People shun those who are different. Always.”  
“I wouldn’t,” said Aisha.  
Loki laid his head back on his pillow. “If only everyone was naïve as you.”  
“Are you calling me stupid?” said Aisha defensively.   
“One day,” said Loki, “you will learn.”  
“I have to go.” Aisha hurriedly left.

Aisha knew she had crossed a dangerous line during that conversation. She was very firm in her beliefs, but he was equally firm in his.   
She went into the courtyard and sat down on a bench. The magical dome over the courtyard blocked out the blazing sunshine.   
Why was Loki so certain that nobody liked him?   
Then it became clear: even though he kept saying he was better than everyone else, he actually felt he wasn’t. So he needed to prove himself to the world.   
Aisha remembered someone in _The Avengers_ saying, “An ant has no quarrel with a boot,” comparing humans to ants and himself to a boot.   
Now she was certain it had been Loki’s line. He thought all other species were inferior to him.  
 _But so do I,_ she realised. Sharing a planet with only animals, the humans of her world had a million reasons to think themselves the universe’s greatest beings.  
Then the reality of her pride dawned on her. When she travelled to other worlds, didn’t she always try to assert her own strength and superiority?  
Maybe she didn’t have the power to change Loki after all. Maybe she only _thought_ she did.  
Aisha ran her hands through her hair. She had to continue trying. Even if she couldn’t succeed, she had to try.

Loki was almost afraid Aisha wouldn’t come back, but she did.   
It was almost evening. Assured that Loki was feeling well, Hayley had gone out to take a nap.  
Aisha immediately apologised, which made Loki’s annoyance ebb way.  
Loki was sitting up, leaning against a pillow. “You really see me as a person?” he said quietly. “Even after all my evil?”  
“I don’t like what you’ve done,” said Aisha, “but I don’t think you’re a monster.”  
An odd sensation came over Loki. It felt like regret.   
“After I found out, I wanted to hide from myself,” he said. “I couldn’t accept who I was.”  
“Do you wish you had never known?” Aisha asked, sounding cautious.  
Yes, Loki thought. “It would have made little difference. Odin would have continued to favour Thor over me.”  
“You said that your mother ‘protected’ you.” There was a question in Aisha’s voice.  
“After New York, Odin wanted me dead,” said Loki after a pause. “Had it not been for … her pleas, I would have been executed.”   
He had a brief memory of Frigga visiting him in the dungeon, attempting to reason with him. “I think you would have liked her.”  
“Do you think she still loved you?” said Aisha.   
“No,” said Loki sharply.   
“If she wasn’t showing you love, then what was it?”  
Aisha was pushing again. Loki ground his teeth. “Obligation. She imagines that her duty towards me is love.”  
Aisha’s eyebrows were drawn together in confusion.  
“Still,” said Loki thoughtfully, “she was less cruel to me than the others.”  
“Frigga didn’t -”  
“She lied to me, too.” Loki took a sideways glance at his right hand. “I hate what I am.”  
“I don’t hate you,” said Aisha.   
“Is there anything that could make you hate me?”  
Aisha hesitated. “I don’t know.”  
He gave her a knowing look. “That means you could.”  
“You _made_ a horrible reputation for yourself,” Aisha snapped. “If no one likes you, it’s your own fault.”  
Loki sighed inwardly.  
“You changed,” said Aisha, and Loki could hear the sincerity in her voice. “I believe you can come back.”  
Then she added, more softly, “And I might be the last person who ever will.”


	10. The Oldest Magic

Even when Loki was pale and injured, Aisha could feel an aura of danger surrounding him. Talking to him was like balancing on the rim of a fiery pit.   
Loki still hadn’t come to terms with being a Frost Giant.   
Loki’s particular struggle was new and intriguing to Aisha. There were so many questions she had about it.   
Aisha remembered when he had used his Frost Giant powers and the Casket of Ancient Winters to freeze Heimdall. There hadn’t been any look of triumph on his face. Maybe he had hated doing it. That meant there was still hope.   
And then there was the issue of his adoption. He was upset about Odin lying to him. But if his parents had told him the truth earlier, would his life have been better, or would he have grown up isolated from everyone?  
All of this thinking hurt her brain. Aisha went back to her room and turned on the TV, but there were very few channels. She watched people play a sport that involved them kicking a ball through hoops, but their aim was so good that it became boring after a while.   
There were so many sides to Loki’s wickedness, Aisha didn’t know where it had begun. Dealing with it was going to be very, very, hard.

In the middle of the next day, Loki felt strong enough to get out of bed. He stood up, legs wobbling, but regained his balance easily. It was too soon to be true.  
“Is there magic in your healing?” he asked Hayley.  
Hayley seemed confused. “I didn’t use any magic. It must be yours.”  
The thought that his body was healing itself made Loki feel proud.   
As he tried to maintain his standing position, he thought about what Aisha had told him.  
He _had_ once been a different person. He had been shy, intelligent and rational, at least compared to Thor.   
He had seen his change had been a good thing. But like Aisha had pointed out, everyone now hated him.   
Hayley and Calpurnia were only helping him because they were ignorant. Once they knew who he really was, they would be sure to reject him.   
But Aisha knew everything. And it seemed to make her want to be closer to him. She wanted to heal the rift between him and his former family.   
Loki’s strength suddenly gave way, and he sat down.   
If he let this chance slip away, he might never get another one. 

The next day, Loki was well enough to accompany Aisha to breakfast. The school’s excitement about Loki had died down somewhat, but Aisha still seemed agitated.   
The dining hall was a large room with rows and rows of tables. The conversation died a little as dozens of fairies stared at Loki.  
He couldn’t help but stare back.  
The fairies were extremely diverse in appearance. Some had tan skin, but others were blue, red, green or purple. There were girls who barely reached four feet and girls over seven feet tall, which explained the long beds in the infirmary. A few even had furry ears and tails.   
It made Asgard seem like a very small world.  
Aisha walked past the girls as if they weren’t there, but Loki took time to observe them. He noticed that one girl was swallowing all her food whole. Another was using magic to grind it up, because she had no teeth.  
There was no room at the teachers’ table, so they had to join the fairies. Loki found himself sitting across from a yellow-skinned fairy with horns on her forehead.   
The girl scrutinised him. “I thought they said you were blue.”  
Loki felt uncomfortable. “I prefer to look this way.”  
Her eyes grew large. “You can change your skin colour? That’s awesome!”  
He didn’t answer, just took a plate and cutlery from the centre of the table. He surveyed the dishes: toast, eggs, bacon, cupcakes, cereal and a few cartons of milk.   
“That’s gross,” said a purple girl nearby.  
“I’d like to have that power.” The yellow fairy was probably under the impression that he changed his skin colour often.   
Aisha, who was already eating, glanced at Loki, as if to ask, _Do you want me to shut her up?_  
He turned away from her.   
“What’s your name?” the yellow fairy asked him. “I’m Gwon-Hee.”  
“Loki.” He picked up a fork and stabbed a piece of bacon.  
“Oh, good,” Gwon-Hee said. “I thought it might be something unpronounceable.” She took a sip of milk. “It’s a pity you didn’t come on a Thursday. On Thursdays we have juice and pancakes. It would be mafal if we had them every day, but this school runs on a tight budget.”  
Loki decided not to ask what “mafal” meant.   
He looked down the table. Almost all of the fairies were using telekinesis to lift their cups or butter their bread. It had never occurred to him that magic could be so … _ordinary._   
“What species are you?” asked Gwon-Hee.  
There was such a long pause. “Asgardian.”  
Gwon-Hee frowned. “Are you like a warlock?”  
“Yes.” Loki was getting tired of her questions. He made mental note to have all his subsequent meals in the infirmary.  
“I’ve always wondered what all the universes Aisha visits are like,” Gwon-Hee chattered on. “Are there any cool creatures where you come from?”  
“Some.”  
“Like what?”  
“Look, if he doesn’t wanna talk, he doesn’t wanna talk!” Aisha shouted.   
Gwon-Hee looked startled. She continued eating in silence.  
Loki felt irritated by Aisha. He didn’t talk to anyone for the rest of the meal, and left as soon as he had finished his food.

Loki returned to the infirmary, then realised it would be completely boring to spend his day there. Hayley suggested that he go to the library.   
The library was on the other side of the school, so Loki walked through the courtyard. He didn’t want people staring at him, and he didn’t have enough strength to become invisible.   
The library was completely silent. It was full of tall shelves, tables and chairs. The books seemed to gleam.  
The nonfiction section had more books. He scanned the signs on the shelves: Plant Magic, Animal Magic, Magic in Space, Magic in Art …  
He went to the History of Magic section and realised that the gleaming came from pictures on the books’ spines. Animals, people and other images flashed across them, giving readers a glimpse of what lay within their pages.  
The book titles were in French, but when he looked at them, they magically turned into English.  
One book had a moving spiral on the spine. The title morphed into “The Oldest Magic”.  
Curious, he pulled the book out. The subtitle was, “A Guide to World-Travelling”.  
He quickly flipped it open. 

_World-travelling is an ancient magic, probably as old as the universe itself. It was there before people learned to harness it. In fact, it is so tightly woven into the fabric of magic that every enchantress and warlock possesses the power to open portals to other universes._

Someone had naughtily added a caret and the word “fairies” after “enchantress”.   
Loki pulled out a chair and sat down, his eyes still fixed on the page.   
An hour flew by. The book was bursting with descriptions of every aspect of world-travelling, down to the most minute details, as well as first-hand accounts from travellers.   
Loki reached the end, and even though his eyes were tired, he returned to the chapter about portals.

_If someone has opened a portal and dies or is knocked unconscious while outside it, the portal will close.  
But if the person is knocked unconscious inside the portal, the portal tunnel will carry all the people in it safely to their destination. If the person is dead, his or her body will then vanish and reappear in his or her own universe._

“You like books, I take it?”  
He looked up and saw Calpurnia standing in front of him.  
Loki moved his legs and found that they were aching. “You didn’t come here to inquire about my reading habits.”  
Calpurnia took a seat. “I already told you that Aisha suffered a lot in bringing you here.”  
“Get to the point,” Loki snapped.  
“Aisha wants to be your friend,” Calpurnia said.  
“She did all this just to offer me friendship?”  
A gang of noisy girls thundered past outside.  
“You think she has an ulterior motive?” said the principal.   
“Yes,” said Loki firmly. “And I’m sure you know what it is.”  
Calpurnia’s eyelids fluttered a little. “I will not disclose anything Aisha has not given me license to say.”  
Loki looked right into Calpurnia’s eyes. “If Aisha chooses to keep secrets from me, she will be in great danger.”  
“Aisha is well aware of who you are, Loki,” Calpurnia answered. “I want to assure you that she is a good person.”  
“And why should I believe you?”  
“I’ve known Aisha for years,” said Calpurnia. “She would not take a risk this big for the sake of manipulating you.”  
“I will not let my guard down.” Loki stood up. “I lost everything once, and I will not lose anything again.” He started towards the door.  
Calpurnia looked a little hurt. “I wish you good luck, Loki,” she said softly. She picked up _The Oldest Magic_ and put it back on the shelf.   
Loki paused in the doorway. “Understand this: if Aisha knows the danger, it’s up to her to save herself.” He walked out.

At night, when most of the fairies were inside their rooms, Aisha went out into the courtyard.  
The whole expanse of sky was sprinkled with twinkling lights. It never ceased to amaze Aisha.   
“Have you never seen stars before?”  
Startled, Aisha turned to see Loki half-hidden in the shadows.   
“I never see this many from Earth,” Aisha said. “It’s too cloudy.”  
Aisha waited for Loki to make a comment about how humans had destroyed their world, but it didn’t come.   
Loki walked over to her. “I haven’t seen the stars for a long time.”   
Aisha tilted her head back again. A dry wind gusted into the courtyard, stirring sand around her feet.   
“I found a book about world-travelling in the library,” Loki said. Aisha turned to face him. “It was … enlightening. And breathtaking.”  
Aisha’s eyebrows rose.   
“How many universes have you been to?” Loki asked.  
Aisha counted on her fingers. “Not including mine, six.”   
“You must have had plenty of adventures.” Loki looked envious.  
“Not in all of them,” Aisha replied. “I did make lots of friends, though.”  
“Monsters and talking animals?” Loki said.   
Aisha smiled and shrugged.   
“Then why do you world-travel alone?” he asked.  
“I usually travel with Kathleen. But she wouldn’t wanna pick a universe at random.” Aisha shivered in the cold. “And sometimes it’s fun to do things on my own.”  
“At random?”  
“Normally, portal tunnels bring you to one particular universe. But if you jump out the side of it, you’ll end up in a random universe.”  
“You really enjoy thrills,” Loki noted.  
Aisha shrugged. “I knew someone who fell out of a portal tunnel accidentally and survived. So I decided to do it on purpose.”  
They lapsed into another uneasy silence.   
“You’re unique, Aisha,” Loki said. “There are few people who would show friendliness as readily as you do.”   
Aisha wondered if her constant travelling was to blame. “I can’t live without friends.”  
“Is it normal for friends to want to change each other?” said Loki.   
“It’s normal for friends to want each other to be happy,” Aisha responded.   
Loki seemed to musing over her words. Aisha braced herself for what he would say next.   
But Loki didn’t press further. “Good night, Aisha.” He went back indoors.

On the fifth day, Hayley announced that Loki was well enough to leave the fairy school. Loki almost felt sad.  
He was pleasantly surprised when Hayley came to him with his clothes all washed. Even his dagger had been beautifully polished.  
Aisha had put on the same clothes she had worn when she left, unwashed, probably to avoid suspicion.  
“What are you going to do when you get back?” Loki inquired when Hayley had left the infirmary.  
“Keep fighting. Help win the war. What about you?”  
He just gave her a mysterious smile.   
Aisha opened a portal to Asgard.  
Loki stepped inside. His vision turned orange and white, and his ears filled with the sound of strong wind.   
Then he turned around and saw no one behind him. “Aisha?”


	11. Return

Aisha’s stomach ached with guilt as the portal closed. Abandoning Loki was as good as betrayal.  
But she was certain he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. This was her only choice.   
She opened another portal and stumbled back into the dark, windy realm of Svartalfheim.   
The dull, hilly landscape seemed to reflect her mood. Aisha transformed and started to fly, remembering to make some coins appear in her hand. She could still feel traces of magic in the air.  
Aisha arrived at the cave. “I found my coins,” she told Thor and Jane with fake cheerfulness.   
Neither of them was listening. Jane was holding a mobile phone, and a man’s voice was coming out of it.  
Aisha wanted to tell Thor and Jane everything. But she somehow felt that if she told the truth, she would only feel worse.  
“Is this a bad time?” said the man on the phone. “Do you want me to try later?”  
“No, no, no, no!” Jane told him. “Please, whatever you do, do not hang up the phone.” She looked around the cave. Thor stood idly to the side.   
Her ability to make a phone call from here was probably a result of the worlds coming together. Aisha pocketed her coins.   
“Okay then.” The man sounded confused. “I was just wondering if you want to try again? Uh ... maybe dinner next time.”  
 _Dinner? With him?_   
“Uh ... yeah, yeah, yeah. Um ... just stay on the phone, okay?” Jane walked deeper into the cave.   
“Yeah, I will.”  
Jane looked at the ground. “Oh, my God.”  
In the dim light, Aisha could see an aluminium can and a bundle of keys lying there. Jane picked up the keys.   
“Am I interrupting something?” the man said.  
“No, no, no, nothing at all.” Jane beckoned to Thor. “Come on.” They kept walking, and Aisha followed.  
“I’m losing you there, are you in a tunnel?” said the man.  
“Where are we going?” asked Thor.   
“Hello?” the man’s voice became faint.   
Aisha stepped on something lumpy. She looked down and saw that the cave floor was now covered with old shoes.   
“Why are there so many shoes in here?” said Thor.   
Suddenly, they were no longer in a cave. They were outside an abandoned building that was almost certainly on Earth. A red car was parked there. Strangely, all its windows had been smashed.   
Jane was healthier and more awake now. She bounded over to the car and unlocked it with the keys.   
Aisha took a while to regain her senses. “We’re not stealing someone’s car, are we?”   
“This is my friend’s car.” Jane got into the driver’s seat. Thor climbed in beside her, while Aisha got in the back.   
“So who’s Richard?” Thor asked as Jane fiddled with the ignition. Richard must’ve been the man on the phone.  
“Really?” said Jane. The car engine grumbled, and they drove out onto the road.  
Aisha stared out the window. The sky was covered with grey clouds, and people were walking around in thick coats and woolly hats.   
“We’re in London,” said Jane. “I couldn’t find a portal in America, so I came here.”  
“You’re hardworking,” Aisha noted.  
A traffic light turned red, and Jane brought the car to a gentle halt.  
“I almost gave up,” Jane admitted. “I thought that maybe ... our worlds were meant to be separate. That they were separate for a reason.”  
Thor looked at her sadly.   
“The Bifrost Bridge exists for a reason, too,” Aisha said.   
“We don’t know what kind of things our relationship could cause.”  
“Don’t be silly,” said Aisha. “My best friend and her boyfriend are from different universes and nothing bad has happened to them.”  
Jane glanced over her shoulder, looking surprised.  
“How long have they known each other?” said Thor.   
“Four years.”  
“That’s incredible,” Jane commented.  
The light turned green, and Jane drove the car around a corner.   
“My friends and I have been researching the Convergence,” said Jane. “We may be able to use our research to stop Malekith.”  
“We must,” said Thor in a bitter tone.  
Aisha remembered they were still shaken by Loki’s apparent death. Her stomach twisted. “We will.”

The portal deposited Loki in a secret passageway close to the palace, where Heimdall couldn’t see him. The chill of Asgard’s air hit him in the face.   
He still wasn’t sure if he’d really meant to kill Aisha inside the portal. But she’d been one step ahead of him.   
What if Aisha had left so she could inform Thor that he was alive?  
After thinking for a moment, Loki realised that was foolish. The others would hate her for helping him and throw her in prison.   
But that didn’t mean that Aisha wouldn’t do it.  
He probably had very little time. Turning himself invisible, Loki walked back to the palace. 

When Thor, Jane and Aisha entered Jane’s apartment, Darcy immediately jumped up to greet them. “Jane!”  
Jane smiled. “Hey.”  
“You can’t just leave like that, the whole world is going crazy!” Darcy seemed frazzled. “All the stuff we saw is spreading.”  
Thor hung up his hammer on the rack near the door.  
Aisha found it disorienting to be back on Earth, among computers and electric lights. She realised that her clothes were covered with dust. She removed her shoes and shook pebbles out of them.   
Selvig was sitting a table drinking something from a mug. There was also a young man Aisha didn’t recognise.  
“Did you go to a party?” Darcy asked Jane.   
Instead of answering, Jane smiled at Selvig. “Erik?”  
“Jane, how wonderful!” Selvig came out from behind the table. Aisha saw that he was only wearing underwear on his bottom half and averted her eyes.   
Selvig hugged Jane. “You’ve been to Asgard.”  
“Where are your pants?” Jane asked.  
Neither Selvig nor Darcy answered.   
“Oh, uh ...” the young man stammered. “He, uh ... he says it helps him think.” He had a British accent.   
Aisha rolled her eyes.  
“Okay.” Jane took on a businesslike air. “Well, I’m gonna need everything you got on this. All the work you’ve been doing on gravimetric anomalies, everything.”  
Selvig nodded. “Okay.”  
First Aisha had been surrounded by Asgardians who were tougher than her. Now she was surrounded by humans who were smarter than her. She pouted.  
“Are you well, Erik?” Thor asked Selvig.   
Selvig chuckled. Then his expression became nervous. “Your brother is not coming, is he?”  
Thor’s face turned grim. “Loki is dead.”  
“Oh, thank God,” said Selvig.   
Aisha wanted to slap him. Thor looked at Selvig weirdly.  
“I ... I’m so sorry,” said Selvig.   
“Thank you,” said Thor. The two men shared a hug.  
Selvig let go of Thor and looked at Aisha. “And you are …?”  
Finally. “Aisha Balducci.”  
“She helped us in Asgard,” Thor explained.   
Selvig opened his mouth to speak, but Aisha looked over his shoulder at the young man. “What’s your name?”   
The man twiddled his fingers. “Um, Ian Boothby.”  
Darcy and Selvig stared at Ian for a second.  
Selvig cleared his throat. “I’m Erik Selvig. This is Darcy Lewis.”  
“Ian’s my intern,” said Darcy.  
There was an awkward pause.   
“I need to go to the bathroom.” Without waiting for directions, Aisha walked off and found the bathroom. She made some clean clothes appear and changed.

When Aisha came out, the scientists were looking at lots of papers on a table. Jane had changed into a more practical outfit. She looked at Aisha’s new clothes in surprise.   
“I can make anything I own appear when I need it,” said Aisha.  
Jane resumed talking. “Malekith is going to fire the Aether at a spot where all the nine worlds are connecting.”  
“Amplifying the weapon’s impact,” Selvig clarified. “For each additional world, the power will increase exponentially …”  
Aisha’s mind wandered.   
She didn’t know what she was doing. Saving Loki, fine, but letting him go free? And lying to everyone on his behalf? She felt like she was carrying a great weight around in her head.   
Selvig had marched out of the room and was unrolling a large piece of paper. The others followed.   
Aisha went up to him and forced herself to pay attention.  
“… The ancients were there to see it,” Selvig was saying. “All the great constructions, the Mayans, the Chinese, the Egyptians. They made use of the gravitational effects of the Convergence. And they left us a map.” He drew many red lines on the map. “Stonehenge, Snowden, the Great Orme. These are all coordinates taking us … here.” He pointed to the place where the lines all met.  
“Greenwich?” said Ian.   
So the main event of the Convergence was taking place on Earth. Why wasn’t that surprising?   
“The walls between worlds will be almost nonexistent,” said Jane, gesturing animatedly. “Physics is going to go ballistic. Increases and decreases in gravity, spatial extrusions … the very fabric of reality is going to be torn apart.”  
“Wow,” said Aisha. “What does that mean?”  
Selvig sighed.

Loki pretended to patrol the palace. He watched other soldiers idle at the entrances, noblemen and women walk back and forth through the halls laughing.  
It made him feel oddly sad. This was supposed to be his home. But he didn’t belong here anymore.  
His mind wandered to Thor and Odin. Would they, like Hayley, ever help a complete stranger? Would they, like Calpurnia, offer advice to someone whom they knew was evil?  
In the fairy school, he had been almost content. He hadn’t needed to hide, even though he hadn’t been entirely truthful with the people he met. His whole experience there now seemed like a blissful dream.  
Here, he was in danger again. The slightest mistake could result in his execution.   
Then he saw a soldier going into the throne room.


	12. A New Ally

Jane, Selvig, Thor, Darcy, Ian and Aisha all squeezed into one car and drove to Greenwich. Jane detailed her plan to the others, but Aisha couldn’t concentrate.   
She knew she couldn’t stay on Earth. She had a much greater responsibility to carry out.  
Thor, Selvig, Jane, Ian and Darcy were major characters. She doubted any of them would die.   
Jane stopped the car at a large university built from stone.  
“What if Malekith’s forces attack Asgard?” Aisha asked no one in particular as they got out of the car.  
“My father can fight them,” Thor responded.  
Jane opened the boot and started unloading what looked like large pogo sticks. Darcy helped her.   
Aisha’s mind was searching frantically for a reason. “I … I found out more about Malekith in Svartalfheim. I could tell Odin what I saw. It might help.”  
Thor barely seemed to think about it. “Alright.” He was probably glad for a reason to get rid of her.   
Aisha turned to Jane. “Can you manage without me?”  
Jane nodded. “Sure.”  
Aisha gave Ian a wide smile. “Bye, Ian!”  
“Bye,” said Ian, who was staring in confusion at the sticks.   
Thor brought Aisha aside and raised Mjölnir.   
Streams of light came down all around Aisha, blocking her view. Then a tremendous force sucked her into the sky.   
Aisha felt like she had rocket blasters. Colourful stars and nebulae zoomed past her. She thought the force was going to rip her apart.  
Then it all stopped, and her feet were on solid ground. She nearly lost her balance.   
Aisha was standing in a golden dome. Opposite her was the Bifrost Bridge, stretching straight to the palace. Heimdall was in the centre of the dome, holding a sword in a hole. He hadn’t been arrested, then.   
Heimdall took out his sword and closed the portal. His face was stern. “When you were in Svartalfheim, there was a time when you vanished from my gaze.” He seemed to be asking a question.   
Aisha thought. “When Loki … died, a lot of his magic came out of his body and surrounded a huge area. Maybe that hid him.”  
Heimdall nodded. “No matter. Odin already sent a soldier to Svartalfheim to investigate.”  
Aisha felt chills run up and down her body.   
“Should I call for a horse?” Heimdall asked.  
“It’s okay,” said Aisha, “I can fly.”  
She made her wings appear. Ignoring Heimdall’s surprise, she flew towards the palace and into the gaping hole the spaceship had left.  
The rubble had not been cleared in the throne room. Odin was standing there, staring at his broken throne. One soldier was talking to him, and another was standing to one side.   
“Thor, Loki and the two mortals are nowhere to be found,” the soldier was saying. He had obviously been to Svartalfheim.  
Aisha sneaked a glance at the guard at the side. Although he was trying to hide it, he looked very shocked. Their eyes met briefly, and her theory was confirmed.  
“Thank you,” said Odin. “You are dismissed.” Then he noticed Aisha. “What happened?”  
“Thor failed,” said Aisha in a small voice. “Malekith got the Aether.”   
Odin’s expression morphed into anger. “And you _dare_ show your face in here after what you have done?”  
Aisha bowed her head a little. He could not yell at her long if she acted meek.  
“So many more lives will be lost now!” he shouted. “If not for Thor, we would now be victorious!”  
Aisha’s irritation overrode her good sense. “How do _you_ know you were definitely gonna win?”  
“Why shouldn’t I?”  
“Because -” Aisha stopped. She didn’t have an explanation.   
“Thor was foolish to think he would win,” Odin pointed out.   
“There was a chance we could win without killing innocent people,” said Aisha.   
Odin shook his head. “Many more innocent lives will be lost now.”  
“Not if you defend them.”  
The guard was smiling discreetly.  
Odin heaved a great sigh. “Where is Thor?”  
Aisha was slightly relieved he’d only asked for Thor. “He’s on Earth. They think Malekith is planning to go there. I came back in case Asgard needs my help.”  
“I do not take kindly to humans loitering in my realm,” said Odin.   
“I noticed.”  
Odin made a dismissive gesture. “Just stay out of my way.”  
Aisha started to leave. “Just so you know, the Kursed is dead. Loki killed him.” She marched out of the room.

Loki hadn’t known that Odin was going to send someone to Svartalfheim. He would have to kill that guard before anyone else guessed that he was alive.  
He followed Aisha, who sat down on the steps outside.   
If she’d told anyone about his survival, Heimdall would surely have heard it and reported it to Odin by now. Which meant that Aisha had kept his secret.   
But Loki also realised he couldn’t kill Aisha. It would draw too much attention.  
Loki sat down next to her. “You’re taking a big risk, coming back here,” he said in his own voice.   
“Asgard may be in danger during the Convergence,” said Aisha.  
Loki didn’t believe that was her real motive.   
Was Aisha here because of _him?_ Did she want him to become Asgard’s king?  
“Are you sure Thor can handle Malekith on his own?” he said.  
“He’s not alone,” Aisha said. “He has his friends.”  
Loki chuckled, then stopped when he saw Aisha’s frown.   
Maybe he should leave her alive after all. “You heard what that guard told Odin,” he said.  
Aisha nodded slowly. “Yes.”  
“His information could ... complicate things.”  
He knew he couldn’t persuade Aisha to do anything that she thought was “wrong”. “You must make sure his word doesn’t spread.”   
Aisha’s gaze became distracted, and Loki could almost see the gears in her mind turning. “I’ll do something,” she said.  
“Thank you,” said Loki.  
He meant it. 

Aisha was worried about Loki. He seemed to have changed his mind about the throne of Asgard. During his recovery, he’d been calm, almost nice. But now ...  
She avoided falling leaves, following Loki’s directions to the guards’ barracks.  
Her loyalties were conflicted. She had never wanted to support Loki. But he had entrusted her with a task.   
For now, all she could do was go along with him.

When Aisha returned to the palace, she went onto a balcony.   
Nothing out of the ordinary was happening in the city below. She doubted that Earth was as peaceful.   
She heard footsteps, and Odin walked up beside her. Aisha tensed up.   
“I should have fought harder,” said Odin.   
His sad demeanour made Aisha want to comfort him. “You did what you could,” she said, even though it was an outright lie.  
Odin shook his head. “So much depends on Thor now.”   
“He’ll figure something out,” said Aisha.  
“I was foolish to think that I could have defeated Malekith with power alone.”  
Odin’s sudden humility made Aisha realise the answer to his earlier question. “I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but ... I think it’s not smart to think you’re gonna win because you’ll become proud. You’ll make mistakes.”  
Odin turned to her. “And if you think you’re going to lose?”  
“You’ll fight harder,” Aisha responded.  
Odin looked at her a while, then nodded. “Thor told me there would be never be a wiser king than me,” he said. “I hope he is wrong.”  
Aisha suddenly pointed at something in the distance. “What’s that?”  
A portal had opened above Heimdall’s observatory, and something dark red was coming out of it. It was the Aether, its tendrils stretching out menacingly.   
“Malekith is unleashing his fury on the Nine Realms,” said Odin.   
The Aether engulfed the observatory, and the metal began to turn black.   
“Can we do anything about it?” Aisha asked.   
Odin shook his head. “I will tell the guards to be on alert.”   
When Aisha watched Odin leave, she saw a disguised Loki standing just behind them. 

Loki smiled to himself. Aisha had wormed her way into the favour of Thor, the Warriors Three, Sif and Jane. Now she was sucking up to Odin as well. She would make the perfect double agent.   
“I told the guard that whatever he told Odin should be kept confidential,” Aisha told Loki.  
Loki nodded approvingly. Of course, that wasn’t the end of his plan.   
Hardly anybody would care. Asgard had more important things to worry about than a missing guard.

Aisha kept watch on the funnel of Aether. It grew steadily larger, and seemed to be trying to eat through everything it touched.   
All of a sudden, the Aether and the portal vanished. Aisha could almost hear all of Asgard give a sigh of relief.   
Some time later, Heimdall hurried into the throne room, puffing and panting. Everybody stopped what they were doing to listen to him.   
“Makeith is vanquished,” Heimdall said. “And Thor still lives.”  
“What about his friends?” Aisha asked anxiously.  
“They are unharmed.”   
A cheer came from some of the guards standing nearby. Odin smiled with pride.

A joyous feast was held that night. But Aisha only took a reasonable amount of food and carried her plate to a shadowy part of a balcony. She ate slowly, lost in her thoughts.  
“This is the strange way to celebrate,” said a voice.   
She looked up and saw Loki, morphing out of his soldier’s disguise.  
“I’m not celebrating,” Aisha replied. “I mean, we did win, but … so many people died.”  
“So you would rather mourn the dead than congratulate the living?”  
“I just don’t wanna forget them.”  
Loki sat down, which made her feel strangely uncomfortable. “There’s nothing you can do for them by being sad. They’re best forgotten.”   
“So just because you survived and they didn’t, you’re better than them?” Aisha’s voice became louder.  
A collective cheer came from the dining hall, followed by the sound of goblets being tossed to the floor.  
Loki sighed. “I don’t want to argue with you,” he said calmly. “Will you be leaving in the morning?”  
Aisha chewed her food slowly, pretending to think. “Maybe. I mean, the adventure’s over.”  
Something passed over Loki’s face.   
“Although … I would _like_ to stay,” said Aisha. “I can get to know people better. Make real friends.”  
“Then why don’t you?” Loki asked.   
“It’ll be suspicious,” said Aisha. “As far as they know, I didn’t even save anyone.”  
Loki shifted. “I’m sure they’ll still be grateful to you.”   
A drunken man staggered out of the hall, then collapsed onto the ground unconscious.   
“Everything will return to normal now,” said Loki. “It’s almost sad.”  
A lump was forming in Aisha’s throat.  
It occurred to her that guards were probably not given the same food as the nobles. She held out her plate. “Want some?”  
Looking slightly surprised, Loki took a piece of meat and ate it in one gulp. “I must go.” He changed back into a soldier and left.  
Aisha set her empty plate down on the floor. Making sure no one was looking, she swung herself over the side of the balcony.

Wandering away from the festivities, Loki reflected on how relaxed he’d felt in Aisha’s company. During that moment, his worries had seemed to fall away.   
Maybe it was because she was the only person he could tell the truth to.   
He went down to the lower levels. He could hear people in the rest of the city celebrating as well. He could hear distant lively music.   
This was dangerous. Aisha was not trustworthy.   
He found a quiet place to stand guard. He had to conserve his energy for what he planned to do later. 

It was early morning when all the celebrations were done. By then, those who were still out and about were mostly exhausted or drunk. The darkness seemed to have a soporific effect on all the guards.   
Loki found the guard he wanted standing alone, in a dark corner where no one could see him.   
“You should’ve kept your mouth shut,” said Loki quietly.   
The guard barely had time to turn around before a dagger was plunged into his throat. 

Odin had not got drunk, but he still seemed to be in a stupor. He looked wearily at the approaching guard. “You have news?”   
Loki did his best to remain calm. “No news, sire.”   
Odin leaned back. “Then what is it?”   
“Asgard owes Thor a great debt.”  
“I know.”  
“Much more than they owe you.”  
“What do you mean?” said Odin defensively.   
Loki switched to his real voice. “Even if you do not seek out war yourself, you should be ready to fight when it comes to your door.”   
A second of silence passed. Odin’s eye filled with sudden realisation.   
“Asgard doesn’t deserve a king like you,” said Loki. “They deserve a king who they can be proud of, who puts their desires first.”   
Odin started to rise, but he seemed to be doing some quick thinking. “And you think you can be such a king?”  
“I’ll never know without trying.”  
Odin’s grip on his spear tightened. “You’ve never cared about anyone.”   
“Because you took them all away from me.”  
“However strong you are -” Odin broke off and began looking confused.   
“You should thank me,” said Loki. “I am taking away all of your pain.”   
Odin twitched violently, obviously trying to hold onto his slipping mind. “You will be disgraced forever!”   
“So will you.” Loki put his mouth to Odin’s ear. “You will not die. But I’ll make sure you have a good time on Midgard, Father.” 

Aisha walked into the throne room apprehensively. Most of the rubble was gone, but the ugly stumps of broken pillars remained. The sun was rising now, and the light illuminated the golden throne at the end of the room.   
Sitting on the throne, holding the Gungnir spear, was someone who looked like Odin, but who Aisha knew was not Odin.  
A small smile appeared on the old man’s face. “Had a good night’s sleep?” he asked.   
Aisha was experiencing the same emotions she had had when she’d been about to jump out of the portal: anxiety mixed with fear. Except this time, she had a feeling she was in more danger than ever before. 

No one argued with Loki when he said that Aisha should stay.   
Heimdall came to inform Loki that Thor had returned. Loki gleefully agreed to see him.   
“You once said there would never be a wiser king than me,” Loki told Thor, who was kneeling before the throne. “You were wrong.”   
Thor listened silently.   
“The alignment has brought all the realms together,” said Loki. “Every one of them saw you offer your life to save them. What can Asgard offer its new king in return?”  
“My life.” Thor stood. “Father, I cannot be King of Asgard.”   
Loki nearly smiled. This was happening just as he had planned.  
“I will protect Asgard and all the realms with my last and every breath, but I cannot do so from that the chair,” Thor continued. “Loki for all his grave imbalance understood rule as I know I never will.”  
That surprised Loki.   
“The brutality, the sacrifice, it changes you,” Thor said. “I’d rather be a good man than a great king.”  
“Is this my son I hear, or the woman he loves?” Loki responded.  
“When you speak, do I never hear Mother’s voice?” said Thor.   
Loki heaved a great sigh.   
“This is not for Jane, Father. She does not know what I came here to say. Now forbid me to see her or say she can rule at my side, it changes nothing.”  
Loki sat down, leaning on one armrest. “One son who wanted the throne too much, another who will not take it. Is this my legacy?”  
“Loki died with honour,” Thor said. “I shall try to live the same. Is that not legacy enough?”   
Loki nodded in an approving manner.  
Thor held Mjölnir up to Loki.  
Loki looked at it for a moment. “It belongs to you, if you are worthy of it.”  
“I shall try to be.”  
“I cannot give you my blessing,” said Loki, “nor can I wish you good fortune.”  
“I know.” Thor began to leave.   
“If I were proud of the man my son had become,” Loki added, “even that I could not say. It would speak only from my heart. Go, my son.”  
“Thank you, Father,” said Thor.   
As Thor walked towards the door, Loki changed back into himself. A grin spread across his face. “No ... thank _you.”_


	13. One Last Enemy

The other officials had matters to settle, and Loki got down to business right away.  
Aisha went on a long stroll through the palace, not talking to anyone. A few people stared, but didn’t ask questions.   
She was on her way back to her guest room when saw Sif, Volstagg, Fandral and an Asian warrior walking down the hall. Volstagg was carrying a dark box.   
After a second’s thought, Aisha waved and went over to them.   
“Aisha,” said Sif, “we’d like you to meet the last of the Warriors Three -”  
“Hogun!” said Volstagg, clapping Hogun on the back.  
Hogun had very long black hair. His expression remained solemn.  
Aisha managed a smile. “Nice to meet you. How did Thor win the battle?”  
“According to Heimdall, Jane used a teleporting technology to confuse the Elves,” said Sif.  
“She just zapped them into other realms!” said Fandral.  
“Thor kept Malekith occupied,” said Volstagg. “Then they teleported him into one realm, teleported his ship into the same realm, and it came crashing down on him. Boom! No more Malekith.”  
They made it sound so easy. “What are you gonna do with the Aether?”  
“We know somebody who can keep it safe,” Sif replied.   
Volstagg showed Aisha the box. “All we need to do is put this away, and the whole war will be over!”  
Aisha nodded, but she was thinking, _No, the war’s not over. There’s still one last enemy left to fight._

Tired, his mind feeling ready to shut down, Loki went to the guest room to talk to Aisha.   
Aisha was sitting on the floor, rolling a tennis ball back and forth.   
“What have you been doing all day?” he asked.  
“Stuff,” said Aisha.   
A little stunned by the abruptness of her reply, Loki didn’t say anything.   
“What did you do to Odin?” Aisha put the ball on her lap.   
“Nothing serious,” he answered. “He’s forgotten his identity, and he’s living comfortably on Earth. He doesn’t even know what happened.”  
Aisha didn’t seem consoled.  
“Have you always liked to travel?” Loki asked.   
“Well, I moved to China when I was ten,” said Aisha. “That’s where I met Kathleen. I met people from all over the world.” She began smiling at the memory.   
The fairy school’s diversity would have come as no surprise to Aisha, then. “We don’t get many visitors here.”   
“That’s probably because Asgard is nearly impossible to get to,” said Aisha. She sounded slightly accusing.   
“But you left the school?”   
“Everyone wanted to finish school in their home countries. I went back to Rome, and Kathleen went back to Singapore.”  
“Do you keep in touch with the rest of your friends?”  
Aisha bowed her head. “Not really.”   
He supposed that Aisha was the kind of person who liked things that were new. “There’re lots of fun things to do in Asgard.”   
Aisha seemed to perk up. “Like what?”   
Loki listed a number of activities from around the city, and found himself getting excited about them as well.   
They discussed the activities for a while, and then Aisha asked, “What does Odin do for fun?”  
Ideas began spinning through Loki’s head. It would be respectful of Odin to commemorate the losses he had suffered.   
Asgard had already collectively mourned Frigga. Why wouldn’t Odin have a change of heart, and want to honour his wayward son? 

Loki was up bright and early. The other realms had been scared by Malekith and the Aether. Which meant many long talks and meetings trying to persuade them to trust Asgard again.   
Morning turned into afternoon, but Loki felt like it had been much longer. There were papers to sign and disputes to settle. Families of fallen guards had to be compensated.   
Aisha didn’t attend the meetings. She assured Loki that she could entertain herself.   
Still, they managed to find a few minutes for them to chat together. Aisha told Loki about her travels, about meeting witches and wizards and evil scientists.   
Loki, in turn, told her about the other realms, and battles he’d fought in.   
He could tell that she was distracted. She wasn’t as perky as she used to be, even though she tried to hide it.   
Aisha wanted to know how Odin was doing. Loki didn’t know, but said he assured her that Odin was being well cared-for in a Midgardian nursing home.   
“Is that what’s best for him?” Aisha asked.   
“It’ll keep him happy.”  
Aisha didn’t look like she believed him. “It’s not what he’s used to.”  
Loki sighed. Aisha couldn’t stand for anything to be less than ideal. “You said your mother wanted you to stop world-travelling. But what about your father?”   
“He lets me do what I like, mostly,” Aisha answered. “He knows I love adventure.”  
“Then he and your mother -”  
“They just try not to talk about what they disagree on,” said Aisha.   
Loki couldn’t believe that such a relationship could last. “It must have been hard not to listen to her.”  
Aisha shrugged. “Nobody else ever tried to stop me.”   
Loki shifted the conversation to his own memorial. He’d spent a good part of the previous night making up elaborate plans. They continued to talk, Aisha probably restraining herself from rolling her eyes half the time.  
But something was off about Aisha’s cheerfulness. Before Loki could wonder what it was, though, he had to return to work. 

Despite all the meetings, Loki appeared to be enjoying himself. Kingship came with numerous luxuries, and his spare time was spent feasting and partying. He could ask for anything and receive anything. He was looking exuberant.   
But Aisha felt like she was moving around in her own little bubble. She ate her meals along with the other nobles, but barely conversed with them. She was fearful that if they started asking how she was, all her secrets would tumble out of her at once.   
Sif, Fandral and Volstagg occasionally asked her how she was doing, but they seemed to get the hint that she wanted to left alone.   
Aisha knew she couldn’t do this forever. And yet, she probably _would_ keep doing this until it was too late. 

It was evening when Loki got the chance to see Aisha again. Aisha was sitting on a hidden flight of stairs, her face turned away from the sunlight.   
Loki’s face was lit up in gold by the setting sun. “Aisha, what’s wrong?” He sounded sincere.   
Aisha could barely suppress the sadness welling up inside her. “I ... I don’t feel like we won the war.”  
She waited for Loki to contradict her, but he didn’t.   
“You can’t save everybody, Aisha,” he said, sitting down beside her.   
Aisha just continued glaring at her shoes.  
Loki put his fist against his forehead and sighed. “Look,” he said, “some lives were lost, I understand that. But now we need to make things better for the people who are still alive.”  
“I know.”   
“And I need your help,” Loki continued.   
Aisha turned towards him. He didn’t seem irritated, or excited. It was the calmest she had seen him so far.   
“I’ve taken the throne for selfish reasons before,” he said, “but now I truly do want to be a good king.”   
“I don’t know anything about ruling,” said Aisha.   
“We can work this out together,” Loki said. “We can talk to the people, do some good for them.”   
“And you’ll just hide behind Odin’s face the whole time?”   
Loki’s mouth opened slightly in surprise.   
Aisha’s curls fell into her face, and she didn’t brush them away. “Why can’t you just be yourself?” she asked earnestly. 

As Loki retreated to Odin’s bedchamber, he went over Aisha’s words in his mind.   
How long could he pretend to be Odin, really? It was tiring to walk around in another person’s body. And it was tiring to hide from Heimdall’s sight the rest of the time.   
After closing the windows, sealing himself inside the room, Loki let his disguise drop with huge relief.   
He looked down at his own body and realised he was unused to seeing it. That it felt foreign.   
Loki shifted and caught sight of his unclear reflection in the wall.   
He didn’t look like a great king, or even a great warrior. He looked like he always had. Young, inexperienced and afraid. And no matter how much the Asgardians adored him, this was something that they would never see.   
He groaned. Aisha’s thinking was contagious. 

Loki saw Aisha still sleeping late the next morning.  
He knew there was no point in waiting for her. He got through the important political matters quickly, then started focusing on all the things he found fun.   
He gathered well-known artists and asked them about their crafts. He told them the ideas he had already run past Aisha, and they came up with a few of their own, many of them comically absurd.   
Loki felt himself getting carried away a few times and had to consciously stop himself. He hadn’t felt this good in a long time.   
Throughout all of this, Aisha never showed up. 

The first chance he got, Loki went back to the guest room, wondering if Aisha was still asleep. To his surprise, the door was wide open.   
No one was inside.   
Loki walked over to the bed, which had already been made. Aisha had probably been gone a long time.   
Then he noticed that her pillow was wet. 

Aisha didn’t seem to be anywhere in that wing of the palace. It was almost as if she was making herself hard to find.   
It shouldn’t have bothered Loki, but as he went about that day’s duties, he was almost anxious. He considered getting someone to spy on Aisha. But that would arouse suspicion.   
Then he realised why he missed her presence. Without someone he could really talk to, he felt trapped in Odin’s body. Unable to speak his true feelings.   
He clenched one fist. Why was he letting Aisha get to him? 

“Something troubles you,” said Heimdall.   
Aisha was in Heimdall’s observatory, looking down the waterfalls that spilled over Asgard’s edge. Beyond that was nothing but starry space, a blend of green and purple.   
“You know what,” she said.   
The abyss was probably bottomless. How many other worlds were down there, unaware that Asgard was above them?   
The large warrior came up next to her, a statue of solid armour. “There will always be more trouble,” he said. “But what you can do is be happy for those who are happy.”   
Aisha wasn’t sure she knew how to be happy anymore. 

“Where have you been?”  
Aisha hugged herself nervously when Loki called to her. “Nowhere.”  
Loki was still masquerading as Odin, but he was too anxious to pretend.   
He looked Aisha up and down. She was sweating slightly, and he could tell from the way she was walking that her feet hurt.   
Loki knew that she wanted to explore Asgard, but this seemed to be taking it to extremes. And she didn’t seem to have been participating in any of the fun activities he suggested. “Do you want to -?”  
“I’m tired. I’m going to bed early.” Aisha walked off, rubbing her eyes.   
Loki stared after her worriedly. 

But bedtime did not bring Aisha any relief.   
Visions of the injured man came to her again, sharper and clearer this time. He was not reaching for her, or pleading. Instead, he just looked sad.  
“Why aren’t you helping him?” he asked.   
Aisha wanted to reach out and touch the man, but her arm was as stiff as lead.  
Her voice came out as a whimper. “I tried.”

Loki didn’t even bother to look for Aisha after he woke up. Instead, he summoned Heimdall and asked how Thor was doing.   
The gatekeeper replied that Thor was happy. He was in the place he most wanted to be.  
The news lightened Loki’s heart considerably. There was no chance that his brother would come back.   
He wanted to tell Aisha the news. But he had no idea where she was. 

Aisha had spent the last couple of days walking, getting herself lost.   
She went down the endless corridors of the palace, peeping into rooms furnished with bright couches and glistening fountains. She watched servants cook food and make beds. She sat in the gardens as leaves fell from the trees. Sometimes she tried to climb the walls and got told off by the guards.   
She avoided everyone, and as a result, even Sif and the Warriors Three had stopped trying to talk to her.   
When she wanted a reprieve from her isolation, she went into the city, where children played with high-tech toys and people sold their wares by the roadside.   
But nothing she did or saw could get rid of the lump in the bottom of her gut.   
To make things worse, Asgard was peaceful. Now and again there was a minor spat or whispers about the Dark Elves, but overall, things were normal. And that meant Loki was actually being a good king.  
Aisha hated hiding from Loki so much. But there was no alternative.  
She was standing between two doors that both opened into blackness, and she didn’t know which one was darker.   
She regretted that she’d got this far. But there was no turning back. 

Close to dinnertime, Loki found Aisha slumped against a wall in a palace corridor, looking more miserable than he’d ever seen her.  
He was jubilant. “It is final. Thor is happy living among the mortals. Asgard is mine.”  
Aisha wouldn’t meet his gaze.   
Loki walked into her line of vision. “I see a long reign ahead of me, Aisha.”  
No response.  
“And it’s all thanks to you,” he added.  
Aisha immediately shoved him backward. He could feel the force of her telekinesis as well as her hands.  
 _“Nobody wants you to be king!”_ Aisha yelled in his face. “I never wanted this to happen!”  
Loki stared at Aisha in confusion. “I have Thor’s consent.”  
“You do not,” Aisha spat. “He’ll find out. Then he’ll kill you, just like he promised.”   
“Thor will never find out,” said Loki, wondering why Aisha was behaving this way.   
He could see her eyes blazing behind her glasses. “You can’t pretend to be Odin for the rest of your life.”   
“I will be a good king.”  
“‘Preserving the peace’? ‘Giving up all selfish ambition’?” Aisha was reciting the words from Thor’s coronation. “Your mother trusted you with that power, and you blew it! I think you would make a terrible king.”  
“You will _not_ speak to me that way!”  
Aisha rolled her eyes. “Yes, _Your Majesty.”_  
Loki didn’t back away. “You will learn to respect me.”  
“Do you think people automatically respect anyone who sits on a throne and holds a fancy spear?” Aisha demanded.   
“This is my rightful inheritance!” Loki said.  
Aisha took deep breaths for a few seconds and cleared her hair from her face.   
“So Thor likes being on Earth?” she asked calmly.   
“He thinks he can better protect the realms that way,” said Loki.  
“He was once eager to become king,” Aisha reminisced. “I wonder what Odin saw in Thor then.”  
“I wondered too,” said Loki. “He was brash and arrogant.”  
“It must have been shameful for you to have Thor for a brother.”  
“He’s not my brother!”  
“If he’s not your brother,” Aisha pointed out, “and Odin’s not your father, you don’t have a right to the Asgardian throne.”  
Loki wanted to react violently.   
Aisha looked straight into his eyes. “Who are you, Loki? With your family, you’re a prince. Without your family, you’re just a Frost Giant trying to be an Asgardian.”  
“I have no family,” he said through clenched teeth. “I took the throne by force, and I will the best king Asgard has ever had!”  
“Last time you were king, five people betrayed you in one day and Heimdall tried to kill you!” Aisha screamed. “Give me _one_ reason why this reign will be any better than your last one!”  
It made Loki almost want to slap her. “I will not tolerate this kind of talk,” he said. “I am the King of Asgard. You, a human, should be first to kneel before me.”  
Aisha looked disgusted. “I’ve never knelt before anyone in my life.”  
Loki remembered a human man who had nearly been put to death for the same kind of stubbornness. “Are you my enemy, Aisha?”  
“You can kill me if you want,” said Aisha. “It’s too late for me to change anything.”  
Loki took a long look at the person who had done so much for him. He couldn’t reconcile what he was seeing with what he believed to be true.   
“Just stay out of my way.” He began to leave.   
“Will this make you happy?” Aisha asked.   
Loki turned back towards her. “What do I not have?”   
“You don’t have _anything,”_ said Aisha. “You don’t have respect, you don’t have a family, and you’re living a lie.” Her face had crumpled, as if she’d used up all her energy yelling at him.   
Sorrow descended on Loki like a thick blanket. “This is what I wanted,” he said, almost trying to convince himself.   
Aisha stared back at him. “Is it?”  
Loki straightened up. “I have achieved everything I ever dreamt of. I don’t need you to tell me what I desire. I will be a powerful king, and no one will ever get in my way.”  
Aisha had a thoroughly miserable expression. “I tried to save you from this.” She ran out of the room.

Aisha ran blindly, her feet pounding the ground and her ponytail swinging wildly.   
She didn’t want to think about Loki. Every look he gave her, whether happy or sad, was acid that ate into her heart.  
Finally, her strength gave out. She fell to her knees, leaned against a pillar, removed her glasses and burst into tears.  
She didn’t know why she was crying. Was it for herself, because she was paying for her foolish decision? Was it for Asgard, because it was under Loki’s rule?  
Or was it for Loki himself, who didn’t even realise he was miserable?  
Aisha cried and cried.  
When she finally stopped, the shadows in the hall were deeper. She thought that somebody might spring out of the darkness and seize her.  
She was afraid because of what she’d done. And she was even more afraid of what was coming.

Loki sat in Odin’s bedroom, mulling over Aisha’s strange behaviour.  
She didn’t want to share his glory. She didn’t even _want_ him to have glory. So what had her whole rescuing act been for?   
Maybe she had just helped him even when there was no benefit for herself. And that would make her genuinely, unconditionally kind.  
But if Aisha was even slightly opposed to him, she was dangerous.


	14. Another Man

In the morning, there seemed to be more activity than usual. More guards were milling around and talking among themselves.   
Loki turned himself invisible and tailed a few of them.   
When they assumed they were alone, they said, “We must wait for further orders. The Allfather will apprehend the imposter.”  
Cold panic flooded through Loki. He turned and ran to the guest room. Aisha was playing a game on her laptop.   
“Come with me.” Becoming visible, he grabbed Aisha by the arm. She barely had time to make her laptop disappear as he pulled her out the door.  
He led through a maze of corridors, to a remote part of the palace, and through a small door in a corner.   
They stumbled down a flight of steps into a basement room. It smelled musty and was crammed with knickknacks. The only light came from the doorway.  
In the semi-darkness, Loki banged his leg against a wooden chest.  
Aisha wrenched herself from Loki’s grip and stepped away from him.   
Loki made himself take deep breaths. “I’m king. They wouldn’t dare -”  
“You’re _not_ king,” Aisha interjected.  
Loki stared at her.  
In barely a whisper, she said, “Odin’s here, Loki. He’s out there right now.”  
Surely he had misheard. “No. I got rid of him.”  
Aisha backed up against a pile of broken weapons. There was guilt written all over her face.  
Horror settled over Loki. “What did you do?”  
Not meeting his eyes, Aisha began to explain.   
She had met with Odin and the guard ahead of time, on the night of the feast. They had been prepared.   
Odin had cast a spell on himself to counter Loki’s spell. He had then immediately returned to Asgard.   
While Odin recovered from the spell, Aisha had met up with him, day after day, and helped him persuade people that there was an imposter.  
She had used the guards to spy on Loki. Their changing shifts gave them ideal times to pass messages. He hadn’t deceived as many people as he’d thought he had.   
And Heimdall, of course, had known everything.   
Why hadn’t he noticed any of this?   
Suddenly it all made sense.  
Aisha had always seemed honest – bluntly honest. Which had given him the impression that she never lied. She had put ideas into his head, and he had stupidly listened to them.  
She had persuaded him to keep himself occupied with meetings and luxuries. Encouraged all his ludicrous pursuits. And with his false sense of security, he had missed what was happening right under his nose.  
And to make sure he didn’t ever see her mask slip, she’d avoided him.   
All that time, Aisha had kept her dislike bottled up inside her. The day before, when she had completed her plan, she’d dropped her charade and let her fury loose.  
 _It’s too late for me to change anything,_ Aisha had said.  
He had assumed she meant she couldn’t stop him. Now he realised she meant she had already set her plan in motion.   
“Why?” he asked quietly.   
Aisha remained silent.   
“What did you really tell that guard?” Loki said.   
“The truth,” she answered.   
Loki sighed. “Too bad you couldn’t save him.”  
“He _let_ you kill him, so you wouldn’t be suspicious.” Aisha was gripping the weapons behind her in support.   
Loki hated being beaten by everyone. “So that guard was a coward.”  
“His name was Niall,” said Aisha tearfully, “and he did not deserve to die.”   
Loki was embarrassed. Humiliated.  
But he felt different from when he had been defeated before. Under the anger and shame was another kind of hurt he couldn’t place.   
“I asked Odin to spare your life,” Aisha said.   
Loki saw his entire future collapsing before him. The world had narrowed into a dark tunnel, with only one destination at the end.   
“What do you want me to do?” he said. “Get back in my cage like an animal?”   
Aisha looked regretful. “I wish it could be different.”  
“You’ll get nothing out of this,” said Loki. “It doesn’t matter what Odin promised you. He’s never respected humans.”  
“That’s not why I did it.”   
“You could have faced me directly.”   
“I just wanted to help you.” Aisha’s expression was all sadness.  
Loki’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, you helped me,” he said coldly. “You helped me understand that I can’t trust _anyone.”_   
Aisha lifted her head, her eyes staring at him in horror. As if her worst fear had just been realised.   
There was the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Odin entered the room, healthy and in his right mind. He and Loki gave each other a long, silent look. 

Chained and cuffed, Loki was marched to the dungeon. Aisha stood by with Odin, the Warriors Three and Sif.   
Loki had made her laugh, made her scream, made her cry. Aisha wasn’t sure if they had been friends, but she had wanted them to be. Now they were definitely enemies.  
Loki might never recover from her betrayal. She could even have permanently destroyed his ability to trust people.   
She could find no one else to get angry at. It was all her own fault.  
“I wish this hadn’t happened,” she said out loud.  
“Well, what did you expect?” said Volstagg. “He’ll always be a traitor.”  
“That’s not true,” Aisha snapped.   
“Father!” an anxious voice rang out.   
The whole room turned towards the voice. The most unexpected people were running in: Thor and Jane.   
Thor went straight to Odin. “Father, are you alright?”  
“Yes, son,” said Odin in surprise. “What’s the matter?”  
Jane faced Aisha. “We know you went back for Loki,” she said, sounding a little apologetic. “I realised that since you can make any object you own just appear, you didn’t have to pick up something that you dropped.”  
Aisha wasn’t surprised at their reasoning.  
“Tell me what happened,” Thor demanded.  
Aisha found telling the story incredibly difficult. At the end, she was met with a roar of approval from the warriors that made her heart ache.   
“Great job!” said Volstagg.  
“That was brilliant!” cried Fandral.   
Thor and Jane, on the other hand, were looking horrified. “You said you would help us!” said Thor.   
“I was too late to save your mother!” Phlegm was collecting in Aisha’s throat. “Do you think I was gonna let someone else die?”  
“You _know_ what Loki is capable of,” said Thor.  
“Oh, so I should’ve let him die because of something he might have done?”  
“Come on, Thor, Aisha’s a hero!” said Volstagg, grinning.  
“I manipulated Loki after I _saved his life,”_ said Aisha. “That’s not heroic.”  
“He betrayed us,” said Sif.   
“And you think me betraying him is any better?” Aisha was becoming hysterical. “I’m not a hero! Heroes _always_ do the right thing! I just do what I think is right or what I wanna do and hope it turns out well. And sometimes it doesn’t.”  
Volstagg laughed. “It isn’t betrayal unless he trusted you.”  
Aisha was silent.  
“Wait. He trusted you?”  
“Yes! And why do _you_ trust me? I wanted to be his friend! I’m not loyal to any of you! I just did it to save Asgard, and now Loki hates me and I don’t want any of your praise and I hate all of you!” Aisha removed her glasses and put her hands over her eyes.   
An uneasy silence hung over them all.  
“You shouldn’t have pretended,” said Thor quietly.   
“I had to,” said Aisha. “Or he’d have killed me, and then couldn’t have stopped him -”  
“We’re not incapable of stopping him.”  
“- Without killing him.”  
“It was dangerous for her, Thor!” Fandral jumped in. “Loki could have found her out at any time.”  
Thor looked at Odin. “And yet, Loki still lives.”   
Odin spoke for the first time, in a low voice. “It was Aisha’s request.”  
“What hope is there for Loki?” said Thor.  
Aisha put her glasses back on. “As long as he’s alive, there’s hope.” The thought lifted her spirits a little. “He can trust you two. You’re his family, and only you can save him.”  
Thor was still frowning. Odin seemed puzzled.  
Aisha started walking in the direction of the guest rooms.  
“You will always be welcome in Asgard, Aisha,” Odin called after her.  
Aisha stopped and turned around. “You’re fickle.”  
“I beg your pardon?”  
“Several days ago you treated me like dirt. And today I’m your hero?” Aisha continued walking, not looking back.   
Behind her, she heard Thor say, “I went against your wishes too, Father. I will pay the price in any way you see fit.”   
“You acted with the right intentions,” said Odin. “You are all pardoned.”  
Aisha felt a sting. Why should they all get off scot-free?  
In the guest room, she flopped facedown onto her bed, but she had already cried herself dry. Her mind wouldn’t settle.   
Then she realised, to her immense disappointment, that _nothing_ had changed. The Dark Elves were gone, Odin was on the throne and Loki was back in the dungeon. She hadn’t affected this universe at all.  
At least Loki was alive. But she was counting on Odin and Thor being kind to him, and why would they be?  
She didn’t know whether to see this as a failure or a success. Her brain told her it should be a success, but her heart told her it was a failure.   
There was no point in sticking around.   
But she still had time for one final apology. 

Loki’s cell was small, stifling and claustrophobic. To make it worse, two shackles with chains had now been added to it, to bind him to the wall.  
He stood in the white room in shock as the guards walked away.   
_You stupid, stupid, stupid fool! he thought. Did you think she’d keep your secret forever? She has absolutely no loyalty to you!_  
In an instant, he realised what the alien feeling was: betrayal.  
He remembered Aisha’s consoling words. Her concern. How his recovery seemed to be the only thing that was important to her. She had counted on his trust to blind him.   
She was more than sly. She was a manipulative, two-faced trickster.  
Just like him.  
He wondered why he hadn’t seen it before. From the beginning, Aisha had used the very same methods that he liked to use, persuading the people around her to do what she wished, and drawing them into her plot without them knowing it.   
“There are no men like me,” he said to himself. How could he have been so wrong?  
After a moment, he realised that all his furniture was still wrecked. He walked around slowly, chains clanking, righting the furniture and gathering the broken pieces.   
Then he noticed Aisha walking towards his cell.   
Loki’s thoughts refused to be coherent. He knew he should hate Aisha. She had paved his path to power, given him hope, and then taken it all away.   
But her appearance stopped him short.  
Aisha’s eyelids were lowered and her shoulders slumped. She looked like a criminal awaiting judgement.   
Loki continued rearranging his furniture.   
“I came to say goodbye,” he heard Aisha say softly. “I’m going home.”  
“Good.” Loki turned to face her. “Leave. There’s nothing left for you here.”  
There was a heavy silence.  
“I’m sorry, okay?” Aisha burst out. “I – I hate seeing you like this. I never wanted you to be upset.”  
Loki heard his voice rising. “Hasn’t my misery brought you joy? Aren’t they all calling you a hero? This must be the grandest moment in your insignificant little life.”  
Aisha was biting her lip, and Loki thought she might cry. “I don’t care if I’m a hero,” she said. “I will never forgive myself for betraying you like that.”  
“What about all the people you saved?”  
She shook her head. “I should’ve found some other way.”   
Loki’s defences were crumbling. It was difficult to berate someone who wasn’t revelling in her victory.   
Or was Aisha acting this way to throw him off guard?  
“Did you have an adventure?” It was more of a mocking question than a genuine one.  
“A bit.”  
He shrugged. “It’s of no importance to you. You can go home and live your normal life and soon all of this will become like a dream.”  
“That’s not true!”  
Loki placed all the broken pieces on the floor and walked closer to the glass. “At least you won’t live to regret your blunder.”  
“I don’t regret saving you!” cried Aisha. “I just regret not telling everyone earlier. I should’ve chosen differently.” She paused. “And I regret helping you take over Asgard.”  
“You got involved for nothing,” Loki said. “You helped no one, you saved no one. Now go home.”   
Aisha didn’t move. “I didn’t want Asgard’s respect.”  
“Then what were you hoping to gain?”  
“A friend,” Aisha said.  
Her statement hurt Loki so much he wanted to laugh to cover it up. “Whatever gave you that idea?”  
Aisha swallowed, opened her mouth to say something, then swallowed again.  
“I knew another man like you,” she blurted out. “He was also looked down on. He also wanted power. So he went to work for a very powerful evil wizard.”  
That was not the answer Loki had expected.   
“The man was a faithful servant to the wizard, but the wizard only cared about himself,” said Aisha. “When the man was injured and almost died, the wizard didn’t rescue him. Kathleen did.”  
Loki could hardly believe what he was hearing.  
“The man saved many people.” Aisha paused. “He’s my friend now.”   
“Did you stab him in the back as well?” Loki asked spitefully.  
“I didn’t have to.”  
Loki turned away, pretending to ignore her, so that he could think.  
Why wouldn’t her story be true? It explained her actions perfectly.   
He vaguely heard Aisha saying goodbye. Turning, he saw that she had opened a portal. She really was going home.   
That jarred him. If she wasn’t really upset, she wouldn’t be leaving at the height of her glory.  
“Aisha!” Her name came out more urgently than he’d intended.   
Aisha turned.  
He wanted to know more. But through his jumbled thoughts, he could only manage one question. “That other man … what was his name?”  
No change of expression came over Aisha’s face. “Quirinus Quirrell.”  
He gave her a slight nod. Then Aisha stepped into the orange light.  
When the portal vanished, it occurred to Loki that he hadn’t asked whether she intended to return.   
He had nothing but memories of Aisha left. And those memories would form a permanent impression of her, either as his greatest enemy, or his closest friend.


	15. End Credits Scene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because what's a Marvel story without an end credits scene?

It was only twilight, but the moon was hidden behind the clouds, dyeing the snow-covered village dark blue.   
Everyone was indoors, keeping warm. Nobody noticed an orange portal opening or a young lady stepping out of it.  
Shivering in a single layer of clothes, the lady walked to the most decrepit house. Snow crunched under her feet as she went up the garden path.  
Pasted underneath the doorbell switch was a sign saying, “Broken”. The lady knocked on the door, then, fearing it had been too gentle, knocked again.  
The door was opened by a bald man in a long robe. A large scar, covered with cracks, ran over most of his face.   
His eyes became bright. “Aisha!”  
Aisha smiled. “Hi, Quirrell.”  
Quirrell stood aside. “Come in, come in! Get warm!” He waved her into the house. He had no right hand; his right arm ended in a stump.  
The inside of the house was not much brighter or warmer than outdoors, since it was lit by candles, but it felt cosy. Aisha sank into a tattered armchair near the fire.   
“Would you like some tea?” Quirrell hurried into the kitchen. “Oops, I’m out of teabags. Will water do?”  
“Water is fine.” Aisha was watching the fire.   
Quirrell took a magic wand out of his robes with his left hand and waved it. A kettle of boiled water rose up and poured water into a mug on its own.   
Another wave of the wand put the kettle back in its place. Quirrell replaced the wand and carried the mug into the living room.   
Aisha took the mug and sipped from it, not looking at him.   
“Are you cold?” Out came his wand again, and huge flames shot onto the firewood.   
Aisha nodded her thanks. The fire reflected brightly on her glasses, but she appeared not to be bothered by it.   
Quirrell sat down on another armchair and then seemed to notice how quiet Aisha was. “Is something wrong?”  
Aisha rubbed her fingers on the mug. “I’m sorry I was a jerk.”  
Quirrell’s eyebrows furrowed. “When?”  
“When I didn’t believe you could change.”  
“You don’t need to apologise for that!” Quirrell said. “I forgive you.”  
Aisha didn’t look consoled. “After Kathleen saved you, did you … did you have doubts? Was it difficult?”  
“A little, I think. Aisha, what’s this about?”  
Aisha cleared her throat. “A few days ago, I world-travelled and met a man … who was like you.”  
A long length of purple cloth was lying on the armchair. Quirrell nervously fingered it.  
“He was eviler than you,” said Aisha. “I saved his life. I was hoping I could change him. The way Kathleen changed you.”  
“And … it didn’t work?”  
She shook her head.   
They sat in silence, listening to the crackling fire.  
“I want to know why I failed,” said Aisha. “And how I can make it up to him when I go back.”  
Quirrell moved closer to her. “Tell me what happened.”


	16. Playlist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a playlist of songs to accompany my story. I tried to include videos with the lyrics in them as far as possible. I would advise you not to listen to the playlist before finishing the story, it might give plot points away.

‘What You Want’ by Evanescence  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2mxVt71ff4 

‘Cold’ by Jeff Williams ft. Casey Lee Williams  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpnpAgXrVnA 

‘Reach’ by Nightwish  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DflsyqXW8XM  
Lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/nightwish/reach.html 

‘Pain’ by Tiger Army  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIQVsKU8GB8 

‘Dangerous’ by Two Steps From Hell ft. Linea  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyBvff1nbhg

‘Where Will You Go?’ Origin version by Evanescence  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz8eRyhrtX4

‘In the End’ by Linkin Park  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYoQpwlfKGU

‘Angels’ by Within Temptation  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V6ANlUA1dM

‘2-1’ by Imogen Heap  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxC5ox0xINw  
Lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/imogenheap/21.html


End file.
